[PosterBoy]

So the rumour mill seems pretty convinced that iTunes 4 for Windows is in development, and I tend to agree because that Music Store is going to be a a rather big revenue stream (a revenue river if you will) for Apple, and they will want more exposure for it (that, and that job posting I saw quoted over at macrumors.com).

The Question is, will iTunes 4 for Windows support the Rendezvous Music Sharing? I would say probably yes, but can we really know for sure? What reason would they have to leave it out?

Stupid question I know, but hey, this is Apple we are talking about, and they have done wierder stuff in the past.

--PB

 

[MacGenius]

Apple has stated that iTunes will be released for Windows byt he end of the year. I'm sure engineering has begun the process however a recent job posting by Apple suggests that perhaps they haven't.

In my opinion they SHOULD have had it ready to go the day they announced the Music Store. Can you imagine how much market share they would have grabbed in 1 week??

Anyhow, as for Rendezvous I doubt at this point that Apple would build this into iTunes for Windows. Rendezvous is based on Zero Conf which is open-source and at this point for UNIX only. There is nothing as far I know that suggests it could not be ported to Windows however Rendezvous is a network protocol implementation of sorts and when have you ever seen Apple port something of this nature to Windows? QuickTime, yes but something network-related no.

Now, they might still allow a streaming service of sorts but Rendezvous requires a bit more low-level stuff to make it happen.

Anything can happen, but don't count on it, Rendezvous is a strategic asset to Apple right now.

 

[PosterBoy]

Rendezvous is strategic yes, but they did also open source it. My thougts were similar to yours until I remembered that.

With Open Source, just about anything is possible.

--PB