iTunes versions older than 10.0 now incompatible with iTunes Store

Hey - just updated to itunes 9.2 and now the store is working - thanks!! I was previously running itunes 8 as I'm always hesitant to upgrade itunes - I feel like they add more restrictions to future versions. So, apparently itunes versions older than 9 are now incompatible with the itunes store. I feel like Apple should give you this option if it works though rather than just saying you need 10 - or AT LEAST explain the situation to people!

This is exactly what happened to me just recently. I got that same screen and cannot go beyond it - I'm running 10.4.11 and I tried to download itunes 10 and it wasn't allowed. I'm basically forced to upgrade to 10.5 to access the store.

I understand about revenue, and I may be running on an older mac, but I spend a fair amount of money in the itunes store that's now lost to Apple. I'm a graphic designer as well and run some heavy programs on my "outdated" MacBook Pro, and it runs faster than most current Macs I've used, and I have no desire to upgrade (I'll actually lose programs like Pro Tools if I do). They should be proud to have a product that works so well that it lasts, and they should support it. This frustrates me, but maybe you'll be able to eventually download on the website. I'll try itunes 9 though, and thanks so much for the explanation! Couldn't find this info anywhere else on the web.

9.x is supported. It is just that they forward you to the standard download of 10 from 8.x. You can go to Apple downloads, download a 9.x version, and still access the store.
I think Apple makes a (probably accurate) assumption that if you are one of those people who never upgrades your OS nor iTunes, the likelihood of you buying stuff from the store is slim to none.

If you use Apple stuff, you know your product(s) will be obsoleced in software at least by the time their 3yr AppleCare runs out. This is in part because the tech industry moves so fast that limiting yourself by supporting older platforms can inhibit future growth.

Apple is in the business to make money on hardware and software, not just music, videos, and apps. If you can't run iTunes 10, odds are you not exactly generating significant revenue for them in recent (within 3 yrs) hardware sales.

Buy/Rent and/or consume the iTunes content on another, supported Mac.

I agree with Apple's apparent strategy of not supporting older systems beyond a certain point--a point which some think is too "thin."

It's one of those judgement calls. The sweet spot would be where not many people were squawking about Apple abandoning them, which is also a point where many would realize it's time to upgrade.

In any event "Life is motion."

Unless, YouTube VOD is included as digital downloads in new DVD and Bluray packages, their inroads will be limited to current Google customers. As of right now, there is nothing YouTube can offer me in this respect that isn't offered by a competitor that I already do business with.

Has anyone checked the accuracy of this story since it was published? I'm accessing the iTunes Store and its content just fine in iTunes 9.2 on the OS 10.4.11 Mac my office saddles me with.

I commend any developers who are still supporting older OS versions, but it can be difficult. One of the developers of Perian summed up some of the challenges here: http://preview.tinyurl.com/3lw9orm

(tl;dr version): supporting 10.5 and PPC added nearly 6 months to their development cycle.

I think it may be a more practical decision than this article implies. I believe 10.0 was where Apple switched to delivering the iTunes Store as HTML. Before that it used a completely custom XML format to deliver the content you see in the store. At some point in the recent past, though they switched. Maintaining both versions of the store would probably defeat the purpose of switching to the new format in the first place, and definitely cost a lot more money.

I'm sure they just waited until their stats showed that the number of people on old versions was small enough.

Also, I'm surprised no one's found some way to install iTunes 10 on Tiger. I mean, I remember when people would find a way to install entire OSs on grossly under-spec'd, unsupported Macs. Surely someone can repackage iTunes?

Well this officially sucks. Apple is poised to lose a few customers here seeing as iTunes 10 requires Leopard or higher. And seeing as how Leopard is no longer available from Apple, the handful of people I know still using their PowerBook G4s are going to have to sit down with me for the arduous task of backing up their six year old data and 'sharing' my old Leopard disc so they can keep buying from iTunes. This is going to be painful ...

It's kind of sad that Apple supports Windows XP yet has left Tiger in the dust.