Akamai Technologies will continue to power streaming media downloads for Apple, including the company’s new iTunes Music Store, under a contract extension announced today.
Akamai will carry on in providing the worldwide infrastructure to support content delivery for Apple.com and services such as the QuickTime Movie Trailers site. It will also continue to serve as the backbone for Apple’s QuickTime Streaming Operations.
“Akamai has the scalable infrastructure to support the incredible momentum surrounding QuickTime 6 and meet the growing demand for high-quality, MPEG-4 based content,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.
Apple and Akamai have been working together since 1999. In July of that year, the Mac maker invested US$12.5 million in Akamai, for approximately 5 percent of the shares of the company. Apple and Akamai made a “strategic agreement” that centered on the integration of Apple’s QuickTime player and streaming server technology with Akamai’s global Internet content delivery service to provide Mac and Windows users worldwide with one-click access to streaming video content.
“Apple is one-of-a-kind in its use of the Web to drive business and brand and we’re excited to continue to play a role in supporting their distribution needs,” Paul Sagan, Akamai’s president, told Boston Internet News, though he declined to comment on the value or duration of the contract.
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