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RealPlayer's popularity was being first. At a time when most of the internet was accessed with dial-up modems and they offered a high compression media format.
by whoopdedo 12y ago
RealPlayer's popularity was being first. At a time when most of the internet was accessed with dial-up modems and they offered a high compression media format.
What killed them was the iPod. Or rather, computers and bandwidth improved so better quality compression could be used. Then RealPlayer limped along on name recognition alone. Although during the early days of h.264 it was the easiest way to play an MP4 on Windows.
- tosseraccount 12y agoActually, it was Windows Media Player that killed them. Real lost it about 2000, years before the ipod.
- X-Istence 12y ago"years" is a tad much, considering the iPod was first released in October 2001!
- tosseraccount 12y agoOk. I didn't know it was that old. Chart at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod#Sales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod#Sales says ipod really took off in 2005, though. Before then it was not a very big seller at all.