When you're clawing away in a three-way battle, nothing's quite as disheartening as watching both your opponents join forces and engage you in a two-front war. Bummer for Apple, then, isn't it? After all, Apple's QuickTime has been duking it out in the streaming media space with competing technologies from Real Networks and Microsoft for quite a while now, so it's got to be a serious kick in the head to hear that Real has gone ahead and bought into some of Microsoft's streaming technology. Yes, that's right; despite the fact that Real leads in market share and Microsoft is bringing up the rear (with QuickTime lodged solidly in between), a CNET article reports that, for some reason, Real felt compelled to license Microsoft's Windows Media streaming audio format. Go figure.

What's this all mean? So far, not all that much; it sort of depends on what Real winds up doing with its Windows Media license. But the very fact that Real and 69 other companies decided to buy into Microsoft's technology implies that, when Microsoft general manager of digital media Will Poole says that "Windows Media is poised to become an audio standard," he's probably not kidding. It's the same old story, really-- Microsoft sets its sights on some particular market, arrives late to the party, and still manages to push its mediocre solution hard enough to get it accepted as a "standard." The plan seems to be to expand market share through sheer brute force-- giving away the product, bundling it with Windows, etc., while throwing vast development resources at the product in order to make up for lost time and hopefully make it competitive in quality. Look, Real sells the "Plus" version of its RealPlayer product for $30, while Windows Media is free to end users. Does that ring any bells? MSIE, anyone?

Meanwhile, QuickTime's still free, too, but this first barest hint of a Real/Microsoft united front has got to have at least some Apple execs biting their nails. Want to hear our prediction? As disturbing as the thought may be, we're seriously preparing for Apple to announce that the company's joined the herd and bought its own Windows Media license for audio streaming. If, thanks to Microsoft's deep pockets and OS monopoly, Windows Media is really about to become a standard for Internet-streamed audio, then QuickTime Player's going to have to support it, or risk losing acceptance. Whaddaya think, too pessimistic?