Apple to square off with Intel's Viiv

The coming months will see a battle over digital media standards

With the launch of Intel's Viiv entertainment platform, Apple is facing a large and well organised competitor in the market for digital media and entertainment.

In the coming months this is set to spark a battle over digital media standards, industry analysts predict.

The launch of Viiv will finally "get premium digital video content flowing", Nathan Brookwood, an analyst with Insight 64, told vnunet.com.

Brookwood argued that the platform is at last meeting the demands of movie and television producing companies. Whereas they would hold their content " hostage" in the past, they are now willing to create ways for consumers to access it over the internet.

But the video download market is still highly confusing to consumers, as programmes are locked in by competing digital rights management technology standards.

Archived episodes of Star Trek and Crime Scene Investigation require the Google video player and can be watched only on a computer screen.

But consumers looking to download Desperate housewives, for example, need to install Apple's iTunes player and can watch it only on a computer or video iPod.

Fans of older television shows, such as Babylon 5 or La Femme Nikita, are forced to purchase an Intel Viiv system.

At the core of this battle are different digital rights management technologies. Viiv is build around Microsoft's Windows Media format, whereas Apple uses Fairplay.

Google introduced yet another digital rights management technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year that will be used in its video download store. And RealNetworks' DRM cannot be ignored either.

While most of the DRM technologies have been around for years, the battle between them can only further intensify, according to Michael McGuire, a research vice president with analyst firm Gartner.

"This is the year that it gets painful for consumers and the industry," McGuire told vnunet.com.

"It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. A lot of people are holding their breath and are seeing what happens. They will close their eyes and let [the market] do its work."