Comments on: How Real Lost Its Way

By: J Herskowitz

J Herskowitz — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 18:40:41 +0000

Of course the slippery slope is that the constant proliferation of new CODECs (e.g. Monkey, FLAC, etc.) creates an ongoing arms race for the media player providers. As soon as a new format or DRM scheme appears, than there is an opportunity for a new media player to pop up that really supports all video, image and audio formats. Can there every really "be only one"?

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 02:41:33 +0000

Greed, hubris and “Wiley E. Coyote” like intellect… that’s the Real story.

By: dano

dano — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 00:42:59 +0000

The Real client is one of those applications that I absolutely hate to install on my machine. It wants to take over everything, and they did a great job of hiding all the preferences needed to regain control of your machine. I think it is somewhat better behaved now than in the past, but I still equate Real with what amounts to spyware. Let that be a lesson to companies building clients.

By: Damian

Damian — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 17:26:04 +0000

First they were a software company. Then Microsoft came to town and started to kill that business.

So then they became a media company. Then they realized that, unlike cable, it was impossible to hold onto customers - that the customers would go where the content was and they were drawn into expensive battles for content.

Then Apple came along and showed that the real trick to making music work on the internet was integrated hardware and software with a heavy dose of marketing.

All the while, they were making their software worse and worse and worse. Here's a good plan for Real: sell of your assets and return the money to the shareholders because clearly you've got no plan and no place to go.

By: CommonSenseDesk

CommonSenseDesk — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 17:14:12 +0000

Real Networks

Real Networks once dominated streaming media on the web.

By: The Importance of...

The Importance of... — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 15:31:56 +0000

A Dirge for Real

Jeff Louella discusses the rise and decline of Real Networks (The Rise and Fall of a Revolutionary Company).The application that changed me in so many ways seems to be dying a slow painful death. The company that once revolutionized the...

By: Thomas Hirsch

Thomas Hirsch — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 13:54:09 +0000

Om — Again, a little extreme. Real may not be perfect, but it’s pretty good. So is Winamp, in my opinion. Also, Real has plenty of cash in the bank, so will not fold anytime soon. The share price has been rather stable, at around 5.00 to 7.00, for the past few years. Chart for RNWK –

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=RNWK&t=5y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=