OK, I'm pretty much making this up out of whole cloth, so go easy.
I got to thinking about how Real is taking so long to release a Mac OS X-ready media player. I got to thinking how real is supporting the MPEG-4 standard, which is based on QuickTime. I got to thinking about how Real has made, to my knowledge, no statement regarding the forthcoming availability of RealPlayer for OS X.
So here's my wild theory: supposing Real and Apple are collaborating on a common MPEG-4 implementation in the next versions of their respective media players? Or, failing something so grandiose, is it possible that Real is dependent on Apple to in some way define the MPEG-4 spec for QT before they can implement it themselves? As you can see I really know very little about the technical issues involved, and obviously wouldn't form any pact with Apple that ended up diluting their own brand. But I couldn't help think it odd: Real is absolutely mum on the subject of a new Mac media player--just at the moment when their and Apple's technology goals suddenly overlap.
Thoughts?
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