By contrast, Apple placed its bets on MPEG-4 to showcase the quality of its digital media delivery system for its core market: content creators. Apart from stylish computers, the company sells multimedia authoring tools widely used in Hollywood. The QuickTime formats are the last piece in the puzzle to deliver content over the PC. Analysts say that while QuickTime's adoption rates bode well for industry standards, it's less clear how it will benefit Apple financially. "The sunny view is that MPEG-4 is emerging as a legitimate standard for modern video on the Net," said Ryan Jones, an analyst with The Yankee Group. "Where the message gets foggier is how does that translate to Apple's revenues? Is it going to result in the defeat of Microsoft? The answer is no." Apple introduced its earlier digital media technology, QuickTime 5, in 2001; and since that time an estimated 130 million copies have been downloaded from the Web. The technology is also widely available on Apple computers and other devices such as digital cameras. People operating Microsoft Windows are fans, too: Apple said that nearly 95 percent of QuickTime downloads are onto Windows operating systems. With Tuesday's announcement, Apple said that QuickTime is gaining acceptance with many new content creators, including record labels such as Jive Records, which produced digital video for Britney Spears and Wilco. "We sell Macintosh, and QuickTime is a core technology for Apple and for the multimedia world," Apple's Casanova said. It "helps keep us at the top of the heap when it comes to content creation and multimedia authoring."
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