‘Dogs & Cats, Living Together…’
This time, minus the mass hysteria component, which is nice — longtime rivals Microsoft and Apple have apparently set aside their long-simmering philosophical differences “for the sake of music and money.” That’s the good word from Fortune, which reports Microsoft has caved, announcing that the company will make Apple’s iTunes service available to the rest of humanity through the Windows Store by the end of the year. The news is noteworthy, considering Microsoft’s new Windows 10 S operating system; essentially a cheaper and streamlined version of its flagship Windows 10 will only let people download Microsoft-approved apps from the Windows Store.
Microsoft formally announced the big news last week during its annual Build conference for developers in Redmond, WA. As Fortune says, “The decision to bring the iTunes app is significant given both companies’ past reluctance to make that their respective services, like Microsoft Office, compatible with the other’s. Bringing iTunes to the Windows Store helps improve the perception that Microsoft is more open to working with other companies and technologies than previously. Microsoft also said Thursday that it would let people download three different versions of the Linux operating system from its Windows Store, which is a big change considering Microsoft once considered Linux a threat to its proprietary Windows operating system.”
Naturally, Apple stands to gain through this arrangement if those Windows users are now able to download iTunes to their PCs and also sign up to the Apple Music streaming service.
