Microsoft today announced that desktop Apple TV and Apple Music apps will be available on Windows PCs next year, downloadable from the Microsoft Store. Early beta previews of these apps will launch on the Microsoft Store soon.
The Apple partnership also expands to personal media, with the news that the Windows 11 Photos app is adding iCloud integration. This means Windows users can smoothly browse their iCloud Photo Library inside the stock Windows Photos app.
On a related note, earlier today, the Apple Music app was made available for Xbox users.
Previously, Windows users could download a copy of their iCloud Photos using the iCloud for Windows app. This simulates a library in the file explorer. Integration into the Photos app will provide a much richer experience, closer to the experience that Apple users enjoy with iCloud Photos on the Mac. A beta of this integration is available for members of the Windows Insider program today, with a public launch coming in the next few months.
Dedicated Apple TV and Apple Music apps have not been previously available for PCs. For Apple TV, Apple currently recommends PC users visit tv.apple.com in a web browser, which is a rather terrible web app to access TV+ content. Apple Music customers can use music.apple.com, or be subjected to the horrors of iTunes for Windows.
These were both subpar alternatives. Native Apple Music and TV apps should give Windows users a much more pleasant experience when enjoying Apple Music and Apple TV+ original content on their PC laptops and desktops.
These announcements continue the expansion of Apple’s content services to more platforms, as Apple prioritizes subscription revenue, over hardware sales. In the case of Apple TV, wider platform availability is crucial as Apple strikes wide-reaching sports deals, such as the deal to exclusively stream Major League Soccer beginning with the 2023 season. Apple TV is also expected to land NFL Sunday Ticket streaming rights.
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