Apple iTunes on iPhones may be replaced soon: Report

Apple may soon kill its age-old iTunes music service on iPhones. iTunes is one of the legacy softwares for the iPhones and started with the first iPod. As iPods have been phased out, it has slowly lost its relevance as a one-stop-shop for music, podcasts, radio station and university lectures.

Apple already got the ball rolling towards replacing iTunes, when it announced at the WWDC 2019 event that in macOS Catalina, iTunes will be replaced by three apps – Apple Music, Apple TV and the podcasts app. It already runs a separate iTunes U app for university lectures.

Now, it seems on course to replace iTunes in all its devices as it has opened up and then closed the listing for the job of a Senior Software Engineer to "build the next generation of media apps for Windows."

The requirements for the job include "Experience with Universal Windows Platform" and "Cross-platform experience with Mac and Windows." Another, important indication in the job description, which points to iTunes, is that it includes a passion for music and writing code.

iTunes has become a music library, a media player, a radio broadcaster and even a way to manage device files overtime for iPhone users. However, with the File Manager app and other apps such as iTunes U, it seems too cluttered a system to have everything on the same device. Instead, Apple is expected to go for an individual app system on iPhones, similar to what it has done for Macs.

The app is also used by Windows users and while Apple issued the update for Macs, Windows users are still using the old iTunes. The reason behind not opening the system to Windows users may be the wall of licensing that iTunes has so far been for Apple.

However, Apple Music service is already available to Android users. The reason is simple – Apple wants to create a subscription-based model similar to Spotify. Its protectionist policies stopped it from doing so on iTunes, but replicating Spotify's model may be in its comfort zone.

While we wait for it to be replaced, it is notable that iTunes has completed close to two decades as a media player, while its compatriots WinAmp and Windows Media Player, which started at the same time, hold nowhere close to the user base it has.

Apple is slowly, but steadily waking up to the competition and now it remains to be seen, that when and if it is replaced, customers prefer the older version or the newer cleaner way of doing things, the way it happens on Mac.