In the first month that the new Microsoft Windows Media Player 9 Series was available, 14 million downloads were recorded worldwide. This breaks down to a rate of more than five downloads every second. This shatters the previous record for downloads of digital music jukebox software, held by Windows Media Player 7 -- nearly doubling the number of downloads in the first 30 days.

"These kinds of download volumes are truly amazing. Clearly the high satisfaction expressed by beta users of Windows Media Player 9 Series has resulted in massive interest and adoption," said Dave Fester, general manager of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft. "This kind of response shows the breakthrough new digital media experiences we designed for Windows XP have clearly struck a chord with our customers around the world."

New research from Microsoft indicates the rapid uptake for the new player has been driven by several key improvements based on customer satisfaction. In a recent study of more than 1,600 Windows Media Player 9 Series beta users, completed in November 2002, users of individual features in Windows Media Player 9 Series indicated the following:

• Nearly 9 out 10 users of the individual features expressed their satisfaction with innovations such as improved audio quality, new Fast Streaming technology that minimizes buffering, and player performance improvements.
• Nearly 8 out of 10 users of the individual features indicated their satisfaction with the new Mini-Player mode, new audio effects such as crossfading and volume leveling and the new Smart Jukebox capabilities.