But there are some lessons to draw from the rise and, if not the fall, the stagnation of Real over the last few years. Companies can be ahead of a new technology wave but fail to catch it if they hew too closely to what made them successful in the first place.  Another lesson is that entrepreneurs who have battles with established rivals, even if they think they are correct on the underlying issues, can end up losing out in the long run. (Just ask the founders of the original Napster.)  We’ll get to Real’s storied industry battles in a bit. More significantly, the company has stuck to some of its technologies arguably for too long after the market started heading in another direction.  Most visibly, Real has continued to pitch RealPlayer, a separate downloadable piece of software, as a way to play online audio and video. The program can also be used for access to television shows and music.  But video formats that play within Web browsers, like Adobe Flash, have become much more popular, thanks largely to video sites like YouTube and Hulu. Mr. Glaser argues that having separate applications is necessary to create innovative features, like RealPlayer SP’s ability to transfer video seamlessly to many portable devices, including the iPhone, the BlackBerry and Nokia phones, along with the Xbox 360.  Mike McGuire, an analyst at Gartner, the research firm, wonders whether Real is actually meeting new consumer needs, particularly since devices like smartphones are increasingly able to directly display Web video. “Sticking to your guns is one thing, but it’s another to say, let’s add features because we can, and because consumers should want this. Do we really know they do? Is anyone really asking for that?” Mr. McGuire said.  In music, meanwhile, Real has also placed what seems like a losing bet — on subscription services that give people unlimited access to a broad catalog of songs for a monthly fee.  Its Rhapsody service has 800,000 paying members. But in this area, too, Real’s vision of the future appears to have grown cloudy, although the company has recently struck some interesting deals to put the service on mobile phones. But for now, the iTunes store from Apple and music downloads in general have become the dominant way to experience music online.  Then there are the very public, all-consuming fights Real has picked over the years. Real sued Microsoft on antitrust grounds in 2003, contending it was forcing PC makers to install its own media software, and won a $760 million settlement.  Two years later, Real publicly sparred with Apple over the fact that the iPod did not play music bought on other online stores. Apple shrugged off the complaint and disabled the technology, called Harmony, that Real had developed to force compatibility between its own music store and the iPod. Apple then went on to dominate the field.  Now Real is waging a new war. Last fall, it introduced software called RealDVD that lets people overcome Hollywood’s anticopying software to make backups of the DVDs they own. Six major Hollywood studios and Real are now fighting over the technology in a federal court in Northern California. A preliminary decision from a judge is expected soon, but the case, and Real’s antitrust claims against the movie studios, could drag on for years.  Real’s cause — to let people make personal copies of movies they own — would appeal to average people, just like the company’s last crusade to sell music for the iPod. But is it a cause worth fighting for, particularly when there are more important challenges in Real’s core businesses? Many shareholders and pessimistic Wall Street analysts do not think so.  “Having $370 million in cash is nice for a little software company,” said Barbara Coffey, a digital media software analyst at Kaufman Brothers. “But if you are fighting six big media companies at once, it’s not a lovely number anymore.”  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page BU3 of the New York edition with the headline: Is It Time for RealNetworks to Switch Gears?. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
The latest version of RealPlayer is out, and it has some cool new features. But have online music and video passed it by?