iTunes won't hit the Microsoft Store before the end of 2017

During the second day of its Build conference earlier in 2017, Microsoft had a surprise announcement: iTunes would be coming to the Microsoft Store (still the Windows Store at the time). Further, the app was expected to hit the store before the end of 2017. As the end of the year approaches, however, Apple is pouring cold water on that timeline.

In a statement to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, an Apple spokesperson stated that iTunes won't land on the Microsoft before the end of the year, citing a need for the time to "get it right." From the statement:

We have been working with Microsoft to deliver the full iTunes experience to our customers and we need a little more time to get it right

There's no new timeline available, and it's not exactly clear what is holding things up. Presumably, we'll still see iTunes hit the Store at some point in 2018.

For most Windows 10 users, this likely won't matter much; if you have the need for iTunes, you can simply use the standard desktop app. However, for anyone using Windows 10 S, which is locked to installing applications from the Microsoft Store, this delay could prove a little frustrating.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl

64 Comments
  • Hopefully do it right means Support for all Windows10 with the unified integration so Phone and Xbox too.
  • Phone? Are you crazy ?
  • iTunes on a phone no way. but apple music now that would be sweet 
  • Chu saala
  • Chu saala
  • Well, the end of 2017 is almost here, so...
  • The first thing I did when working on a Mac: Get rid or around iTunes.
  • It's not coming, u will see. Just like the android emulator for wp
  • Nadella .... I want to congratulate you before the years end.... GOOD JOB, MAN. ROFLMAO
  • The trolls now blaming Microsoft and its CEO because of Apple's failings. iTunes has been a steaming pile for over 16 years, Apple refuses to fix it, and because Apple can't do one simple thing you are blaming others. Can you people be any more pathetic?
  • I bet there are more Itunes user than Windows Store users...all time.... Now which one is the steaming pile?
  • And yet, there are more users of Windows Store than the Apple store on Mac. Either way, iTunes is still shi* software.
  • iTunes=Malware
  • Coming from a jealous troll!
  • itunes is certainly a steaming pile, no doubt about it, but it doesn't even come close to the steaming pile that is UWP and the windows store.
  • I think it's more about this "overpromise, underdeliver" nature of his tenure. Didn't we just get an Ask Dan video about this, and he said a week or two back that his sources confirmed an intent to make it happen in 2017, even though they only had a few weeks left in the year? We saw MS cancel Scalebound shortly before it was to launch. We've seen Sea of Thieves and Crackdown repeatedly delayed. We've seen mobile promises that were met with almost no action to prove the commitment (and now look at it). Major releases to W10 are as famous for consistency of delaying features to future releases as they are for releasing on-time (still waiting on that thrice-delayed W10 update with a focus on mobile features). There is a real problem of expectations at Microsoft, where they seems to refuse conservative estimates on things. The Xbox team appears to have gotten the hint and backed off early announcements on things. That has left their exclusive lineup looking bare, but it could be for the best long-term. The rest of the company should  do a better job of looking at timelines. I cna't help but expect Sets to get delayed until they're actually out publicly because of this. Granted, no one likes to give them credit on the met deadlines, like the XB1X release, WMR release, Steam support for WMR, and the aforementioned fact they have yet to need a big delay on a full W10 release update. However, I question how much praise they really should be getting for doing their jobs properly when it's often littered with feature delays. That's the complaint, that we keep getting told "wait for this date," and the date is ever-changing. It's like trying to buy a Vega graphics card.
  • @Nohone When will you fanboys realize that MS's pathetic junk UWP platform is not a priority for others?? What does Apple have to do with the fact that MS's junk OS store is not a priority for them?? Sorry, but the only pathetic are you, kissing Nadella's @$$ all the time and eating every piece of crap sold by Microshit.
  • But...iTunes sucks in it's present state. It should not be a "simple Bridge" port. It needs to be UWP'ified, GUI and all.
  • Is anyone surprised?
  • No, I'm not. Apple has shown over and over again that they can't code worth shi*, and it shows that they can't run a simple tool that has been run on much more complicated applications to package up their software. I was just reading an article on another site discussing all of Apple's fuc*-ups this year, there have been plenty of them. Use the username root and it bypasses all security. Delays of products such as Home Pod. Purposely breaking a large amount of apps on their store. Oh, and let's not forget, once it drops to 50 degrees their phone stopped working. So no, I am not surprised that Apple screwed up, again.
  • I doubt Apple screwed anything up. What motivation do they have to put iTunes in the Microsoft store? It won't increase their users on Windows. All Windows machine can already get iTunes.
  • I wonder if one reason Groove is dead is because Microsoft promised to kill it off if Spotify and Apple brought their services to the Store.
  • I think it would be more likely they stopped Groove development because Spotify and Apple made Store apps. Especially with iTunes, why else would you agree to put a competing service against your own? Remember Groove on IOS and Android did not have the option to purchase music like on W10M
  • Still doesn't explain why we can't buy or stream music on Groove seeing as it's Microsoft's own platform. Why should I HAVE to buy my music through iTunes, I thought competition was supposed to be good for the consumer? What I mean is this, iOS and Android have their own Music stores so Groove doesn't have the ability to buy music on those platforms. Microsoft now has no native Music store so we are now forced to find an alternative, for me it's Amazon Music. Not sure why they removed streaming from Groove either, if that was a condition of Spotify bringing their app to the store then what was the point as it's just the desktop app in an appx wrapper. Microsoft should have said to both Apple and Spotify, screw you in terms of the music sales and streaming. Primarily because both apps, iTunes and Spotify, are already available for windows as normal windows desktop applications
  • Since they are having such a hard time converting this to a nice sandboxed Windows Store application, I suspect that iTunes native wasn't written very well.  I looked forward to the first usable version if iTunes.
  • They can take their time because iTunes as it stands is terrible.  So if they are doing a rewrite for UWP then hopefully it won't be so bad.
  • Don't count on it being a complete rewrite as a UWP, my guess is that they have to find a way of integrating Quicktime into the package as well.
  • Meh 🤷‍♀️ they get free upgrade to pro, nbd😎
  • People still use this crap software?
  • Yeah, when there is no Windows platform on phones going forward, some people are forced to take to iOS, and that requires living with the hell of iTunes. Luckily, that's not me, but I have had to use iTunes to deal with family memebers' iOS device backups.
  • Apple pulled a fast one, could see that happening a mile away.  
  • "However, for anyone using Windows 10 S" Who's the idiot who uses Windows 10 S anyway?
  • The people who purchase the Surface Laptop, that is the premium example of a device running W10 S. The W10 Pro free promo runs out end of this year and may or may not be extended. So yeah....
  • Yeah, the people buying the $750 laptop for $1,000 that is less functionally capable than the Surface Pro, in terms of hardware design and OS features. Honestly, people buying the Surface Laptop to use it with W10S deserve their fate. It's a baffling product. Why innovate in the PC chassis market with the Surface Pro and talk about how OEMs need too move forward if you're going to show up almost 5 years later copying a Macbook chassis you claimed to be wanting to progress from? The thing should be a hybrid like the Yoga or Flip lines from Lenovo and ASUS, not presenting a laptop that physically fights with its own Pen support with an inflexible hinge.
  • @Keith Wallace, you're totally missing the point of the Surface Laptop. It's for people who want a laptop, if they want a hybrid laptop there is the surface book series, if you want the hybrid tablet then there is the Surface pro series. It's all about consumer choice albeit that line of thinking extended to smartphones for a short period only. Sure, I agree shipping Windows 10S on the Surface laptop may be somewhat peculiar but they needed a device that can showcase Windows 10S in a traditional form factor. Personally I'd have kept Windows 10S for the non pro versions of the Surface series. As it best show cases the fluidity of UWP apps. Windows 10 pro for surface pro series, surface book and the surface laptop. But even then people would have said it was Windows RT all over again for example. So you end up with peculiar state where the Surface Laptop runs Windows 10s.
  • Which apps? :)))
  • If you want VisualStudio, Photoshop, Unreal on your machine, you'd bought Surface Pro, Book already. Anyhow.. professional work tools will survive but most exe will die out from the market imo. Facebook exe, website, uwp app, which is more approachable for general user? UWP-only also means safer than *.exe.
    No registry tampering, clean install, clean uninstall.
    If you are an indie or startup, why should people trust your no-name *.exe?
    Do you want to write your own installer, updater, uninstaller, crack-proof? Do your advertisement like what enterprises do? And MS can drag you outta store if you violate the rules e.g. collect what you shouldn't or found a way to break security and install malware on user's system.
  • :))) Apple has better things to do than care about the pathetic MS app store or their mediocre windows 10s junk.
  • Please enlighten us?  Like what?
  • who cares, apple sucks...
  • Mobile owners forced to iOS because of Microsoft's refusal to commit to mobile might need to be concerned.
  • Yeah they suck so bad they're about to become the first trillion dollar company.
  • I don’t understand all the negativity for iTunes.  Works fine for me.  
  • Why use iTunes in 2017?
  • Ability to create full offline backups of iOS devices that don't take up space in iCloud and allow me to manually manage at my will. Oh, and syncing photos and videos taken with other devices, as the OneDrive iOS app is woefully slow no matter how fast the device's internet connection is
  • You don't need iTunes for either of those. I certainly wouldn't find it worthwhile to install that terrible program just for local backups. Cloud backups are fine.
  • Cloud backups are fine provided you have enough space in iCloud, which I do not. The convenience of cloud backups is not worth the price for me.
  • and why would apple integrate with windows 10 get real ffs, its ok as it is
  • What is wrong with the current version of iTunes that everyone is already using?  The version that, incidentally, works with Windows 7, 8.1 and 10.   Why build another version that only works with 10?  
  • Exactly! Especially when the majority of windows users are still on windows 7.
  • My thoughts exactly, Microsoft should have kept the streaming and Music store through Groove as iTunes and Spotify are already available and work on different versions of Windows.
  • There is nothing wrong, but desperate fanboys still hope that pathetic app store will someday get apps :)))
  • What's wrong?  It's terrible interface. Navigation. Utililty. Not to mention how heavy a footprint it exerts for the crap it does do.
  • Few years back... my phone crashed and apps stopped working. I tried to grab my backup from iTune... backups were corrupted.
    It happened 2nd time so no more iPhones.
  • Mate, if you're seriously asking that question, there's no explanation that'd make you understand it.
  • iTunes? Isn't that becoming legacy software? How much longer will it even be relevant? It is only a matter of time before Apple shuts down the store. It has become pointless with Apple Music and all the other streaming services.
  • As it's a consumer service I'm surprised it's coming to Windows 10 store at all... It's already available on desktop and I can't see Windows 10 gaining any traction in the consumer space...
  • Well, Apple really has some more important things to do on their own platform - fixing OSes. But I'm looking forward to iTunes on the store. It's getting kind of old to restart the computer after updating a music player, come on.
  • macOS doesn't need any fixing, in the way you're speaking. Also, iTunes uses system components on macOS - this is why it's so heavy on Windows, and why macOS users don't really complain about it the way Windows users do. Apple has to port a ton of their frameworks (which are simply part of their OS platform) to Windows for iTunes to work there... I reckon sandboxing this isn't trivial, considering the limitations of the UWP sandbox. On Windows, simply disabling/enabling IE will need a reboot, and you have to edit the registry to get Long Path support... But people are raving about... Fluid UI in the UWP apps. Additionally, the very vast majority of iTunes updates do not require a restart. It just so happens that they are often timed to be released the same day as OS updates/patches - like what happened with the latest iTunes update on macOS... macOS often forces reboots because it's not Windows. It's a UNIX/BSD OS and if you don't reboot after a patch, you may still actually be running an unpatched version of the OS, due to the fact that the running system is using pre-patched binaries, libraries, and services until the reboot. Since iTunes depends on system components, it's often updated when updates to the system is pushed. This is why new versions of macOS invariably mean updates to iTunes, Safari, and a slew of other apps (even apps like iMovie, iWorks, GarageBand, etc.). Not much different than Windows, actually. Do you even use macOS, at all? Apps like iTunes, Safari, etc. generally do not require system reboots on macOS when they are updated. That is an uncommon occurrence, actually. There's certainly a case to be made against waiting for OS updates for App updates, but that's not a problem with the OS. That's simply how they choose to maintain their platform. Liking it or disliking it is your personal preference. macOS is managed more like iOS, while Windows is managed more similar to a Linux distribution.
  • Apple's iOS is strongest in the US. Coincidentally, their PCs are also strongest here. I doubt 95% of their users use Windows. Many Windows users also have Macs. I have an iMac and a Windows [Gaming] Notebook. I am not alone. Many people with Windows PCs also have MacBooks, and the people I know tend to prefer them. People are using MacBook Airs when they could easily get more powerful Windows PCs, instead. I'd guess 35% or more of their iPhone users also use Macs - especially when you consider the people in other countries who can afford an iPhone usually are able to afford a Mac, as well... Particularly in those markets where subsidies aren't a widespread thing.
  • I have personal anecdotes, too.  At my company, developers have a choice of working computer.  Mac or PC.  People invariably choose Macs because they are cool.  Status symbol, but they immediately install Windows. I'm not sure on the motives for making iTunes at all for PC since Apple has always been kind of a spoiled brat with respect to openness.  But, I'm glad a UWP is coming.  iTunes is terrible. Terrible.   Okay. Now that I'm using Spotify, I'm not even sure I need iTunes but for keeping my phone up to date and doing phone management stuff.  Gods, I hate it as much as I hate using Google products.  #truefeelings  ;)
  • What will happen if they make you choose between Surface Book and a Mac? Place I work... (we've over 4k people, more world wide) every programmer I've talked to so far, all said OSx should've just go away...
    Personally... because I'm a kb-heavy programmer, Mac is just inefficient.
    Inconsistent UX sometimes happens too... * My colleague was surprised that Apple had finally made resize-window-from-any-corner available on Mac in 2012. I'eve never used a win3.1 but I'm sure such feature was in win95...
  • :))) Apple has much better things to do than to care about this pathetic junk app store and MS's FAILED wincrap 10S
  • Is it only for me that the store doesn't work at all? I mean, apps won't install/update. The reset application doesn't work either. So wouldn't get any iTunes anyway.