Apple Music, Podcast Apps Might Be Coming To Microsoft Store

It has been less than two years since Apple retired the venerable iTunes, both the brand and the app. But while Apple itself has already moved on with its separate apps, those on Windows are still living in the past with an old version of iTunes. That, however, may soon be a thing of the past, too, if these rumors of Apple Music and Apple Podcasts coming to Windows have meat to them.

Not everyone was actually happy with iTunes retirement but Apple's overall plans for a more services-oriented future has no room for its kitchen sink application. The split app strategy works fine on Macs but Windows users would have been at a complete loss without iTunes since it's also used to manage devices. Fortunately, Apple did make iTunes available on the Microsoft Store as one of the win32 programs distributed there.

9to5Mac's sources now claim that Apple has started testing its Music and Podcasts apps for the Microsoft Store. This follows Apple's development of the Apple TV app which was launched for Xbox consoles. That, however, puts into question whether these newer apps will be available for Windows PCs as well.

That said, Apple did look for developers who were familiar with Microsoft's Universal Windows Platform or UWP. This would suggest its universal availability but that's not assured either.

The question now is when this will all happen. The report gives a two-month guesstimate based on the Apple TVs first leak, which points to a March rollout at the earliest. Perhaps a bigger question is whether the old iTunes will still remain available on the Microsoft Store once the Apple Music and Podcasts apps become officially and finally available.