By Peter Cohen pcohen@maccentral.com
September 05, 2003 4:00 pm ET

Absent of any other information on Microsoft's vast Web site, a brief passage on its Windows Media Player for Mac OS X Web page notes that Microsoft is going to bring forth a Mac OS X version of Windows Media Player 9.

"Coming Soon! Windows Media Player 9 Series for Mac OS X will deliver compatibility with 9 Series audio and video content," reads the page.

Windows Media Player 9 is the current version of Microsoft's multimedia playback engine. The current version of Windows Media Player for Mac OS X is version 7.1.x.

Positioned as Microsoft's alternative to Apple's own multiplatform QuickTime technology, Windows Media Player 9 provides Windows users with access to music audio file and streaming media playback, as well as a host of other features -- over 120 new features compared with previous Windows releases, like a "Smart Jukebox" that keeps multimedia content organized, support for new audio and video types and quality levels and more.

Mac users who have Windows Media Player for Mac OS X installed mainly depend on the software as a way to play back Windows Media files that can't be accessed through any other method -- some content providers offer video files in Windows Media format, for example. Apple's QuickTime and other integrated technologies handle for the Mac much of what Windows Media Player and its core technologies do for Windows.

Microsoft's Mac Web site makes no mention of the forthcoming software, and further details were unavailable.

»maccentral.macworld.com/news/200···05/wmp9/