Petteri Pyyny
24 Sep 2001 1:53
RealNetworks has taken a step towards single multimedia player. Real's problem is that it has, according to company, 220 million registered users for its RealPlayer software, but only a handful of users who have actually purchased the full version of the player.
New player, dubbed as RealONE Player, will include all the functionality the commercial versions currently have, and allow new users to use these advanced features 14 days for free. After that, the advanced features will be blocked -- typical shareware trick. Company hopes that by introducing the advanced features to new users, it would get more users to register the software.
Company also announced that it expects its implementation of MusicNet to launch within 60 days -- slightly later than expected earlier -- and that it would cost less than $10/month.