November 28, 2001: Apple says users download QuickTime 5 for Mac and PC a million times every three days, putting the multimedia software on track to exceed 100 million downloads in its first year of distribution. The announcement comes as websites adopt the MPEG-4 format, and online video begins to take off in a big way.
In particular, Apple’s movie trailer website proves a massive success. Millions of people download previews of upcoming blockbusters like Spider-Man and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Online trailer releases for films like The Lord of the Rings become buzz-worthy events.
In a pre-YouTube world, Apple has everything to gain!
Apple movie trailer site drives growth in QuickTime 5 downloads
Launched a couple years earlier, by this point, Apple’s movie trailer website had become the biggest of its day (and a great advertisement for QuickTime). It came into being after Apple staffers were appalled by the low-quality encoding of trailers put up by movie studios, most specifically the Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace trailer hosted by Lucasfilm.
After a meeting with the film Lucasfilm, Apple started hosting QuickTime trailers. They looked far better than the RealVideo alternative of the time. Apple didn’t pay for the content, but did host the trailers and pay for the bandwidth.
Like the profit-sharing deals that Steve Jobs worked out with iTunes soon after, the arrangement worked in both parties’ favor. Apple got to show off its technology and push QuickTime downloads. Movie studios got free advertising.
New features in QuickTime 5
“QuickTime has been long established as the digital media standard for capturing, encoding and delivering content on the internet,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s vice president of worldwide product marketing, in a press release about the software’s release in April 2001. “QuickTime 5 offers incredible new capabilities for everyone who creates or views multimedia content.”
The new version of the software offered a slicker user interface with upgraded audio controls. A new “Hot Picks” guide and QuickTime TV channels made it easier for viewers to find content. And a new DV codec boosted the speed and quality of streaming video.
QuickTime 5 also brought new tools for content creators, as well as support for MPEG-1, Macromedia Flash 4 and Cubic VR. Meanwhile, Apple’s QuickTime Streaming Server 3 added a patented feature called Skip Protection to make internet video less glitchy.
Downloads surge as online video takes hold
All those advances, and the popularity of Apple’s movie trailers site, spurred the quick growth of QuickTime. This also presaged the boom in online video that continues to this day. By November 28, 2001, Apple saw such a surge in QuickTime 5 downloads that the company issued another press release to crow about its success.
“More than 300,000 people download QuickTime 5 to their Macs and PCs every day,” said Schiller in a press release on this day in 2001. “The incredible quality of QuickTime content delivered by popular movie trailers such as Star Wars Episode II and Lord of the Rings, and nonstop news coverage from top organizations like CNN and NPR are driving this record setting download rate.”
Slightly more than a decade later, with streaming video all the rage, Apple started to phase out movie trailer downloads. But it was fun while it lasted!
Do you remember downloading movie trailers using QuickTime back in 2001? Leave your QuickTime memories below.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
One response to “Today in Apple history: QuickTime 5 takes the world by storm”
QuickTime 5 also marked the zenith of interactive QuickTime. Although it was not evident at the time, the advent of MPEG-4 was to mark the beginning of the end of interactive QuickTime begun with version 3. This also marked the beginning of the end for personal, idiosyncratic programming with interpretive languages. First HyperCard, then interactive QuickTime and now, with the Apple’s elimination of the Product Manager of Automation Technologies position we may also be seeing the beginning of the end of AppleScript and Automator. Soon, programming in the Apple world will be Xcode-based or nothing.