RealNetworks proposes alliance with Apple | MacNN News

RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser has appealed to Apple CEO Steve Jobs to license its Fairplay DRM technology so as to allow music purchased through RealNetworks’s Rhapsody music store to work with the iPod. In an email sent to Jobs last week, and obtained by The New York Times, Glaser proposes that in return RealNetworks would make the iPod its primary device for the store and its RealPlayer software. Glaser cited a need for his company to find a partner in the increasingly competitive business, and suggested that should Apple rebuff the offer, as industry analysts expect, it would likely turn to Microsoft and migrate its music store from the AAC format to WMA. “Why is Steve afraid of opening up the iPod?” Glaser asked the Times, after word of the deal leaked out. “Steve is showing a high level of fear that I don’t understand.”

Is it only me that sees the real rationale behind this?

Once again, comments to MacNN are polarised between those who think Steve Jobs should do this: Licensing FairPlay so that this increases iPod sales. Others feel that Apple shouldn’t do this since it there is no need to do so. Real need Apple more than the other way around.

The fact is that iPods are one of the most successful digital audio players, and with the likely upcoming video iPods, this dominance is set to increase. Without iPod support in Real’s Rhapsody store, Real lose out on a large number of potential customers. That’s why Real are begging.