But that’s not totally right.
There are actually some MP3 players made by companies other than Apple that are compatible with iTunes.
Read on to learn all about the non-Apple devices that are compatible with iTunes.
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What Does iTunes Compatibility Mean?
This article only focuses on being able tosync content using iTunes.
More recently, a new crop of high-end MP3 players offer iTunes support.
There were many more devices that worked with iTunes.
Support for them still exists in someolder versions of iTunes.
Those versions are years out of date at this point and that support will vanish when you upgrade iTunes.
In 2004 and 2005, Hewlett-Packard licensed the iPod from Apple and sold iPods with the HP logo.
Because these were true iPods just with a different logo, they were compatible with iTunes.
The HP iPods were discontinued in 2005.
While this makes some sense, it doesn’t fit with how Apple prioritizes its businesses.
The iTunes Store and the content available there is not the primary thing Apple wants to sell.
Apple makes the vast majority of its money on hardware sales.
If Apple were to allow non-Apple hardware to sync with iTunes, consumers might buy non-Apple devices.
That’s something Apple wants to avoid whenever possible.
The streaming software company Real Networks and portable hardware maker Palm offered software that made other devices iTunes compatible.
For instance, thePalm Pre could sync with iTunesby pretending to be an iPod when it communicated with iTunes.
After being blocked multiple times, Palm abandoned those efforts.
