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iTunes Not Coming to Microsoft's Windows Store in 2017

iMi said:
Excellent point. You would think the main app that most Windows users who already own an iPhone would be exposed to on the daily basis would be polished to perfection. After all, what better way to say "Mac is better" than to deliver the best music app on the competing system!
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True, I never understood this. iTunes is Apple's ambassador in the Windows world. Yet everything about it is confusing and slow. If it were the only Apple product I knew, I would say they should not be dabbling in software. In fact, for a long time this was the case, and it was mostly iTunes that kept me away from the iPhone. And with Microsoft's increased efforts at integrating both Android and iOS devices into Windows, I still kinda hope I will be able to ditch iTunes
again some day.

(I have a 200GB collection of mp3s. When put on a microSD-card, my 12-year old Sandisk mp3-player reads and indexes this in 20 minutes. But on my computer on an SSD, iTunes needs hours for the same task - hours during which it seems to freeze completely. I had to check the task manager to see it had not crashed.)
 
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Yeah, Windows 10S is not popular, or prevalent.
But the principle of the Windows Store is trying to emulate what Apple have done in creating a carefully moderated store of apps, akin to the Mac App Store.

But I agree absolutely with the comments about iTunes being a poor advert for Apple. It’s the family member that just doesn’t fit with the rest. A sync/media/browsing/backup/Store all in one package that does none of those tasks with any slickness or appeal.
Needs re-conceptualising from the ground up.
 
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Woyzeck said:
What exactly do they mean with "we need a little more time to get it right" in the context of iTunes ? They're working since 15 years on it and it gets worse with every release.
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That really isn't fair. It had its ups and downs certainly and went downhill somewhat after 9.2.1 for a while. But over the last few minor versions there have been great improvements including massive speed-ups, the introduction of new work and movement tags, the return of multiple playlist windows , as well as HiDPI support on Windows. With the removal of the App Store, we can look forward to a renewed focus on iTunes' core functionality. I feel like they may have turned the corner.
 
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Woyzeck said:
What exactly do they mean with "we need a little more time to get it right" in the context of iTunes ? They're working since 15 years on it and it gets worse with every release.
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My guess is that they are using the wrapper binding that MS supplies, to get desktop apps packaged as an app store app, which used to be just UWP apps. It could be that they want to integrate as many App Store features (previously only available to UWP apps) as they can, for a better Windows store experience.
 
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BMcCoy said:
Yeah, Windows 10S is not popular, or prevalent.
But the principle of the Windows Store is trying to emulate what Apple have done in creating a carefully moderated store of apps, akin to the Mac App Store.

But I agree absolutely with the comments about iTunes being a poor advert for Apple. It’s the family member that just doesn’t fit with the rest. A sync/media/browsing/backup/Store all in one package that does none of those tasks with any slickness or appeal.
Needs re-conceptualising from the ground up.
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I would agree, that iTunes on the desktop needs a re-think...
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Zaft said:
I dont get it, you can download it from Apple's website...
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Yes, for 10 home and Pro. However, if you have 10s (surface laptop), then you can't, unless you upgrade it to Pro.

However, if you are an Android phone user, this whole discussion is moot...:)
 
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Kaibelf said:
Yes, shame on them for not pulling out all the stops to deliver their music client to the main competing platform. Next can we complain about them not giving out iMessage to Android devices?
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Well, considering at least a plurality of their iPhone users probably use windows PCs and iTunes is still a requisite go between for certain applications (like loading music and personalised ringtones) I’d say they might want to give it some priority, you know... having said that I’d rather they take their time and get it right than do what they’ve been doing recently and rushing out a buggy piece of software, then rushing to paper over all the problems.
 
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Falhófnir said:
Well, considering at least a plurality of their iPhone users probably use windows PCs and iTunes is still a requisite go between for certain applications (like loading music and personalised ringtones) I’d say they might want to give it some priority, you know... having said that I’d rather they take their time and get it right than do what they’ve been doing recently and rushing out a buggy piece of software, then rushing to paper over all the problems.
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"I’d say they might want to give it some priority"

Why? The current version of iTunes supports Windows 7, 8.x and 10 (non S). So 99.9999999999999% of Windows in use today.

This version of iTunes was only for Windows 10 S. That ONLY comes on a the Surface Laptop (no other Surface models) and select Education Channel laptops, cheap junk laptops that schools can buy in mass. The Surface Laptop actually comes with a free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro which is a tiny upgrade process that unlocks Win32 capability. Basically turning ON disabled features.

So iTunes for the Microsoft Store (Name this month) has a POSSIBLE Tiny to NO audience at this point. Apple should not waste ANY resources on this project.
 
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Windows users, most apt comment I can come up with to describe your predicament in the light of this news;
Dodged a bullet.
 
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TheMacDaddy1 said:
Why even bother. Windows 10s and their store are a complete joke. Who uses Windows because they want to in 2017? PC gamers is about it. .
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Win10 isn't that bad at all. It does a lot of thing OS X can only dream about - touch for example works great. It's got a bit of rough edges but overall it works very well.
 
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iMi said:
Excellent point. You would think the main app that most Windows users who already own an iPhone would be exposed to on the daily basis would be polished to perfection. After all, what better way to say "Mac is better" than to deliver the best music app on the competing system!
Click to expand...

TBH iTunes (and Photos) suck on macOS as well, so there is that (but yeah, iTunes (and quickTime) are terrible on Windows).
 
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If they cannot get things right on their software how much more of getting that Windows version. They have priorities and they already failing on their own. Microsoft has to wait maybe next year Apple gets lucky and they finally build all their software right with less bug. :rolleyes:
 
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itguy06 said:
Win10 isn't that bad at all. It does a lot of thing OS X can only dream about - touch for example works great. It's got a bit of rough edges but overall it works very well.
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Windows could always be described that way. It can (theoretically) do a lot but everything's a bit less than polished. But it works – there's a reason it's used in business and for other serious endeavours. If you think Windows 10 isn't bad, I feel like you would have been fine with most earlier releases of Windows as well.
 
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ELman said:
Windows 10s requires apps to come from the Windows Store. The current downloadable version of iTunes will not work.
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As a user of Windows 10 and have been since day 1, I have been downloading and installing non windows store software since the beginning. Installed 5 different software packages that are not available from the store last weekend.

I am also a macbook pro user for the last 7 years.
 
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itguy06 said:
Win10 isn't that bad at all. It does a lot of thing OS X can only dream about - touch for example works great. It's got a bit of rough edges but overall it works very well.
Click to expand...

I have a Windows 10 touch enabled laptop issued to me from work. It is not a bad laptop. I never use touch, ever. Why? 99% of the apps are not touch friendly. 100% of the ones I use are not. So yeah after playing with paint using touch, for a few min, the experience was over. Maybe if I had a Surface Pro I would use touch more? Doubtful because it again comes to apps that have horrible touch UI. Also used at a tablet, the Surface Pro is bulky and just not as good as a iPad which is lighter, slimmer, has way more battery life and ALL of its apps are touch fantastic.

Also there are many things to NOT like about the Windows 10. DPI scaling is horrible compared to a Mac. Even some of the built in OS parts, like device manager, or Microsoft's own tools like AD users and groups are NOT DPI aware so they look like KRAP on a high dpi monitor that is not running at 100%. You can't control (completely) the update process. I have had my work laptop reboot on me at the wrong times because I had put off the reboot to many times. Then every time there is a big update (twice a year) all this KRAP ad software gets jammed into the start menu....lots of it. Ad's on the lock screen by default. Yes most, not all, can be turned off. I wont even get into the forced telemetry data at some level that can't be turned off.

There is no way I would buy a Windows 10 computer on purpose.
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fmharr said:
As a user of Windows 10 and have been since day 1, I have been downloading and installing non windows store software since the beginning. Installed 5 different software packages that are not available from the store last weekend.

I am also a macbook pro user for the last 7 years.
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That is because you are NOT running Windows 10S. You have home, pro, Enterprise or LTSB, all of which support Win32 apps downloaded from any place.

Windows 10S is a new gimped version of Windows that came out in June. You cant buy a copy of Windows 10s. It currently only comes with a single Microsoft Surface model (Surface Laptop) and select Education Channel laptops that Schools can buy. They are all currently low end PC's ($300 or less). Windows 10S can ONLY run UWP apps from the Microsoft store. It can't install Win32 apps. Example Chrome can't be installed since it is a Win32 app. Apple is making a UWP (wrapped) version of iTunes for the store.
 
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iMi said:
Excellent point. You would think the main app that most Windows users who already own an iPhone would be exposed to on the daily basis would be polished to perfection. After all, what better way to say "Mac is better" than to deliver the best music app on the competing system!
Click to expand...
That’s what’s funny. I’ve on and off used iTunes on Windows over the years, and I never had much to complain about with it. Best ever? No, but have you seen the poor efforts from MS since WMP?

Related, I was quite surprised when iTunes on the Windows Store was announced. Windows Store is so widely unpopular that the business reason for doing so just isn’t there. I almost wonder if MS is paying Apple to port it. I’d be surprised if Windows 10 S ever goes anywhere, cause without it, a Store app isn’t needed.
 
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Imagine you're a highly talented software engineer with a true love of Apple products (and the company). You've earned your dream job, working at the mothership. Then imagine that instead of contributing to the next top-secret, culture-changing product, you're tasked with porting iTunes to a version of Windows that almost nobody uses. It seems almost like some deranged form of punishment... not like something a lot of people inside Apple would be raising their hands to volunteer for. If forced to work on it, you'd probably rather quit your job and go elsewhere. Now it doesn't seem so strange that it's taking longer than expected to finish.
 
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The best thing apple could do is just rewrite the entire program from the ground up and dismiss the existence of UWP altogether like most everyone else, it's just far too weak and dumbed-down to even bother with.

Nobody uses the Microsoft store beyond a few free social media apps here and there so really they're wasting their resources.
 
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