by Tim Kennedy
July 28, 1999

A few years ago, I worked for a rather conservative institution. Now this was an organization with a pretty strong social and even political agenda. I always found it interesting how those organizational beliefs filtered in to, of all things, computers. Despite rare flashes of brilliance, I found the Information Technology department was made up mostly of unimaginative computer science types. Their job was moving data. They didn't care what the data was. They just wanted a dictatorial control of how it got from Point A to Point B.

A friend of mine in the organization fought the status quo. He was one of those artist types: emotional, visionary, and perhaps a bit undisciplined. He insisted on working with Apple Macintosh computers. He took his department to publicly acclaimed heights before he was eventually cast out for not fitting in.

Why the long soliloquy on my past employer? Besides the personal cathartic release, it sums up the streaming struggle for Apple's QuickTime technology. Information Technology types, those guys who move your information from Point A to Point B, typically lean toward Microsoft or RealNetworks solutions when it comes to picking their streaming solutions. But when it comes to the people who actually make the message, those scary creative types, Apple QuickTime is often champ.

The platform politics are pretty understandable. IT types are typically concerned about the enterprise. They understand PCs and servers. For many of them, Microsoft really did invent the Internet. For artist types, Apple Computer really did invent multimedia. The Macintosh is the artist's machine. QuickTime is the Macintosh standard. Most design shops were making impressive QuickTime based presentations when RealMedia was still in diapers.

But somewhere along the line, Apple got lost. RealNetworks went on to build a very strong streaming platform. Microsoft joined the fight with resources and reorganization. Apple, while technically able to pseudo-stream for a while, jumped in late. But the company, under the leadership of Steve Jobs, has come roaring back. So as we walk through QuickTime basics, I'll cover a common theme. QuickTime is an absolutely gorgeous Internet delivery platform. The quality is high and the capabilities are impressive. But in my opinion, they do have some work to do to improve their place in the live streaming market.