RealNetwork's Rhapsody Gets Mac-Enabled -- Positive Buzz Ensues (RNWK, AAPL)

The Stalwart submits: I've never paid any attention to Rhapsody, the subscription music service from RealNetworks (ticker: RNWK). In fact, I have a general disdain for all the Real-branded products and formats I've come across -- they've been both buggy and difficult to download.

Yesterday, RealNetworks made news by announcing a web-based version of Rhapsody, so there's no need to download any client software, and individual songs can be linked-to. But the real story here is that now the Rhapsody service can be used by Mac users. What's the big deal about expanding their market-reach by less than 10%? Well, Mac users, like Firefox users, make up a disproportionate number of people who care about and are talking about tech (some might describe them with the obnoxious term "influentials"). Surprise -- all of a sudden people are coming out of the woodwork and declaring that Rhapsody is one of their favorite online music services.

So maybe I'll give Rhapsody a look some time. Well, probably not. But, it's clear that while the Mac population is still quite small, companies ignore them at their peril.

RNWK 1-yr chart:

Comments

[Dion Almaer:]

I always think it is important to get Mac support. Although people claim a low % of Mac sales, this is skewed due to the large number of business and utility computers that are Windows (e.g. point of sale units).

Dion

2005 Dec 07 11:01 AM

[Dill:]

Now, using Fluid you can run Real Rhapsody on your mac like a standalone application. Which is nice because Rhapsody of course has crashed my browser a number of times.

2008 May 20 12:36 PM