When video gets ugly by latrine 2010/05/24 20:00
Forget the browser wars, the operating system wars and the mobile phone wars. The one to watch now is the battle over video formats.
Forget the browser wars, the operating system wars and the mobile phone wars. The one to watch now is the battle over video formats.
latrine 2010/05/24 20:00
On one side we have Apple and Microsoft. On the other Google, Adobe and Mozilla. It's going to get ugly.
On one side we have Apple and Microsoft. On the other Google, Adobe and Mozilla. It's going to get ugly.
latrine 2010/05/24 20:01
First, a quick catch up: Apple has booted Flash from its mobile products because it says, among other things, that Flash is not open enough. In its place Apple, and Microsoft, are backing the H.264 format for online video. Ironically H.264 is wrapped up in at least as many, if not more, patents than Flash ever was.
First, a quick catch up: Apple has booted Flash from its mobile products because it says, among other things, that Flash is not open enough. In its place Apple, and Microsoft, are backing the H.264 format for online video. Ironically H.264 is wrapped up in at least as many, if not more, patents than Flash ever was.
latrine 2010/05/24 20:01
Unsurprisingly, Apple and Microsoft are among the companies licensing the use of H.264, so stand to make money, and lots of it if the format is widely adopted.
The only other competitor to H.264, until a couple of days ago, was Theora, an open source format favoured by Mozilla, Google and Opera. But the chances of Theora succeeding have always seemed very slim, particularly as Jobs has already made it clear that Apple was looking at hitting Theora hard with patent suits.
Apple and Microsoft have also made it very clear that they wouldn't be supporting Theora in their future browser releases.
Unsurprisingly, Apple and Microsoft are among the companies licensing the use of H.264, so stand to make money, and lots of it if the format is widely adopted.
The only other competitor to H.264, until a couple of days ago, was Theora, an open source format favoured by Mozilla, Google and Opera. But the chances of Theora succeeding have always seemed very slim, particularly as Jobs has already made it clear that Apple was looking at hitting Theora hard with patent suits.
Apple and Microsoft have also made it very clear that they wouldn't be supporting Theora in their future browser releases.
latrine 2010/05/24 20:01
All of which sent a strong signal that Apple and Microsoft would get their way and H.264 would, over time, become the dominant format for online video.
All of which sent a strong signal that Apple and Microsoft would get their way and H.264 would, over time, become the dominant format for online video.
latrine 2010/05/24 20:02
The Google factor
That was last week. This week Google weighed in for the video wars. At its Google I/O conference, the heavyweight software company announced VP8, its own royalty-free video format and WebM, an open source project to develop open video for the web. Suddenly there was a new and powerful opponent to H.264.
There are those that will argue that VP8 is not as good technically as H.264 and that may be the case.
It doesn't matter though. Better specifications aren't going to win this fight. Patents, lawyers, money and influence will.
Apple and Microsoft have tons of patents, lawyers and money and both have shown themselves more than happy to use their patents. Microsoft also has influence as the most dominant software maker and its Internet Explorer browser is still number one in town. It has, however, said that it will now include VP8 support in IE9 which will weaken the case for H.264 slightly.
Google, on the other hand, has the money and it has the gumption to fight Apple and Microsoft. It also has something much more powerful: YouTube. This is not to be underestimated. As the dominant driver of online video - more than two billion video views a day - YouTube is a major weapon in the battle for online video formats and Google has already said that all videos 720p or larger being uploaded to YouTube will be encoded in WebM.
Clearly Apple and the MPEG LA, the consortium controlling H.264 format, are not going to give up without a fight and are already amassing troops.
Picking an ultimate winner in this fight is impossible. It all comes down to the relative strengths of the various parties and this time it is pretty evenly matched. But it will make for an interesting fight.
The Google factor
That was last week. This week Google weighed in for the video wars. At its Google I/O conference, the heavyweight software company announced VP8, its own royalty-free video format and WebM, an open source project to develop open video for the web. Suddenly there was a new and powerful opponent to H.264.
There are those that will argue that VP8 is not as good technically as H.264 and that may be the case.
It doesn't matter though. Better specifications aren't going to win this fight. Patents, lawyers, money and influence will.
Apple and Microsoft have tons of patents, lawyers and money and both have shown themselves more than happy to use their patents. Microsoft also has influence as the most dominant software maker and its Internet Explorer browser is still number one in town. It has, however, said that it will now include VP8 support in IE9 which will weaken the case for H.264 slightly.
Google, on the other hand, has the money and it has the gumption to fight Apple and Microsoft. It also has something much more powerful: YouTube. This is not to be underestimated. As the dominant driver of online video - more than two billion video views a day - YouTube is a major weapon in the battle for online video formats and Google has already said that all videos 720p or larger being uploaded to YouTube will be encoded in WebM.
Clearly Apple and the MPEG LA, the consortium controlling H.264 format, are not going to give up without a fight and are already amassing troops.
Picking an ultimate winner in this fight is impossible. It all comes down to the relative strengths of the various parties and this time it is pretty evenly matched. But it will make for an interesting fight.
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