Will AAC support ever become widespread?

Actually best is to get an external drive and to rip your CDs in lossless. That way you can always encode them in whatever lossy format you want to without loss of quality due to transcoding between two lossy formats. Also you have your CDs archived in case some become to worn down to play properly.
Back to Topic: I think AAC will be the new standard fairly soon as it has main advantages and take into account that the iPod is the market leading DAP and iTunes the market leading online store for digital music and they both use AAC by default, so sooner or later all manufactures will jump on the wagon.

I believe that AAC won't actually become a widespread format, namely because it seems that licensing costs must be very high for the codec. While I'm not sure, I believe that Apple is probably part of the consortium that issues the licenses, and as we well know, they enjoy locking down products and vertically integrating. Notice that some older Cowon players supported AAC, and no longer do so, probably over licensing issues.

I'm sure there is market demand for it, but it does seem like something that is deliberately left out.

Ipod has been the market leading DAP for about 7 years now without any Apple propriety format taking over from mp3. With the LAME encoders continually improving and the average Joe being unaware of the many lossless formats, I would expect the mp3-format to stay with us for a while. Even if there are better lossy formats such as OGG and AAC.
I agree with Galatian, you could rip your CD:s to FLAC and then convert to AAC or mp3 or whatever format you need.
Personally I prefer to stick to the format that can be used by most players and that is mp3. When using LAME 3.98.x and encoding VBR 0 or CBR 256kbps are quite good for portable listening.

AAC is the chosen successor to MP3 - by the MPEG associationg, not by Apple. It is an industry standard, not proprietary to any one company. You'd be surprised to find any major company who hasn't a stake in it.

It stands for Advanced Audio Codec (Advanced Audio Coding), not Apple Audio Codec as many people believe. But, it will have a hard time wrestling the reins from MP3 for a number of reason, one being that this ain't the age of one-format anymore. People aren't tied into CD's anymore, or DVD's. They can rip into whatever format they want.

MP3's license is cheaper in small amounts, but in large amounts, AAC is much cheaper than MP3, probably one of the biggest reasons Apple added support for it to it in its 2nd Gen iPod.

MP3 and AAC are both MPEG products. Whether or not manufacturers jump on the bandwagon, AAC is the current industry standard. The problem isn't pricing, isn't what is the leader, it is digital piracy.

Still, illegal distribution of music is generally done in MP3 format and most of the companies who cater to that market (Cowon, Meizu, iRiver) and many other 'smaller' companies, are entrenched in home markets who don't buy music.

If piracy wasn't widespread, AAC would already be in wide circulation as online distribution would just switch to it. But because people download MP3, the hardware manufacturers need to support it first. It is quite an interesting show of force by the user to the industry - a sad one, but a show of force nonetheless.

Here, no one buys CD's - or if they do, 90% of them are pirated. Even big supermarkets sell pirated stuff. So, it is no wonder Cowon pulled support for AAC - there simply is no way a home market (where most cowons are sold) of piracy would support an INDUSTRY STANDARD - piracy and industry simply don't mix.

I do wish AAC wasn't just supported (most if not all large industry manufacturers support it), but I love the community codecs such as OGG vorbis which do a great job with sound and, because of their open-source roots, get updated way more often than the industry standards.

Back to the OP's concerns - I agree with the majority here about backing up to lossless. I know space might be an issue but prices are fairly cheap for external HDD's and they are getting cheaper every month. I would backup to lossless on an external drive, and then use any lossy format you want with your PC / portable player.

I see no evidence of AAC becoming an industry standard, anytime soon. MS likes WMA, Apple wants AAC, Cowon / Sandisk are happy with MP3 or Ogg Vorbis. I wish these vendors would agree on a replacement, but I don't see that ever happening.

It's not enough to merely be better than mp3; it has to *displace* mp3, and that means the entire mp3 infrastructure.

Remember, I don't just have an mp3 DAP. I have an mp3 ripper, and an mp3 software player. And so do most people I know. Even if I could convert to AAC at no dollar cost, there's still the hassle cost, the time it would take to convert hundreds of hours of music.

Remember how long it took for Betamax to replace VHS, and how long it's taking the MacOS to replace Windows.

I don't think it will. I mean it can, but it would take a while.... more and more online music providers are offering MP3 as a download format instead of just buying the CD. Of course it all depends on how educated the mass market is. 

 

I'm sure at least 50 percent of the people buying ipods/mass market DAPs don't know anything about the difference between lossy formats and I'm sure half of them don't even know what a lossy/lossless format is. (Definition & example).