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QuickTime, file-compression and translation format developed by Apple Computer that facilitates the distribution of audio-visual material over computer networks such as the Internet and contributes to the multimedia environment of the World Wide Web (the leading information retrieval service of the Internet). The two key attributes of QuickTime are its abilities to operate within a variety of computer operating systems and to allow video compression. Apple released the first version of QuickTime in 1991.

QuickTime is used to deliver synchronized graphics, sound, video, text, and music. Apple describes it as a suite, or a group, of files, applications, and plug-ins. It can be used as a movie player, image viewer, audio player, and virtual reality (VR) tool. It can also be downloaded as a Web browser plug-in (that is, an easily installed program), although many browsers already include it. QuickTime is supported by Director, HyperCard, PowerPoint, and MovieWorks and by many other standard multimedia authoring applications. One of the most significant features that it brings to the Internet is its enabling of video streaming over networks; thanks to QuickTime, live streaming and Internet TV and radio can be delivered through a Web browser.

The World Wide Web has become an increasingly visual environment, and the need to disseminate moving-picture and sound files is met in part through QuickTime. Film and video are highly versatile multimedia components, but file sizes prohibited their usage in the early stages of the Web. QuickTime, along with other standards such as MPEG for moving images and JPEG for still images, allow smaller files to be used by reducing file size while still retaining a presentable level of quality. QuickTime compresses, retrieves, and changes the format of still images, but it also allows these functions to be extended to the use of film and video in conjunction with audio. In addition to still images, sound, and streaming video, QuickTime also enables forms of VR; it can be used to create virtual walk-throughs of buildings or other 3-D structures.

The QuickTime player has appeared on the computer desktop with stop/play/pause functions and channel choices that tap into QuickTime radio and television. These QuickTime channels have been supported by several multimedia companies, including Fox, ABC News, Virgin Radio, Time-Warner, Disney, CNN, and BBC World. This cross-media support and application of QuickTime in some ways revitalized Apple’s share of the computing market. Although RealNetworks is also a main competitor, the release of QuickTime 4 in 1999 placed Apple more firmly in the multimedia market during the early 2000s until the discontinuation of QuickTime VR in 2015. Apple did not support QuickTime for Windows after 2016—the last version was QuickTime 7. QuickTime X, also known as QuickTime 10, was released in 2009.