Pot, meet kettle: a response to Steve Jobs' letter on Flash

[maflynn]

Pot, meet kettle: a response to Steve Jobs' letter on Flash

Interesting article from Ars regarding Jobs' letter and how they state it being a bit hypercritical.

Although Jobs talks part of the talk when he says, "we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open," his walk goes the opposite direction, advocating both a proprietary video format, H.264, and proprietary software for engaging it—iPhone OS.

 

[belvdr]

This is getting as bad as two five year old kids on the playground.

 

[maflynn]

There's a lot of the article I don't really agree with but what I quoted was a bit ironic in Steve espousing openness and criticizing adobe yet he mentioned using a closed format instead of flash.

 

[*LTD*]

It's not a schoolyard fight. it's business, with entire markets as stake. There's a conflict, but one will emerge the winner and get to dictate terms to the loser and everyone else.

Google is backing HTML5, Apple, and now Microsoft have made their position abundantly clear. Adobe is becoming increasingly isolated, and if they know they're going to lose this battle then it would be nice to see them roll over right quick, so we can get on with other news and Adobe can get on to dealing with reality. The sooner the better.

You can pot/kettle all kinds of opinions, but they won't change the outcomes. Adobe's fighting a losing battle, and frankly, a cool new healing brush don't feed the mobile dog on a Saturday night.

 

[spinnerlys]

Isn't H264 kinda open, one just has to pay a hefty fee for using it?

 

[*LTD*]

Isn't H264 kinda open, one just has to pay a hefty fee for using it?

It's royalty-free until 2016.

 

[spinnerlys]

It's royalty-free until 2016.

For everyone or only for the browsers?

 

[*LTD*]

For everyone or only for the browsers?

It should all be in here:

http://css.dzone.com/articles/h264-...m=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+zones/ria+(RIA+Zone)

 

[boonlar]

H264 is 5million per year to license

That's why Steve jobs is pushing it. Also flash would take away sales from AppStore so it all comes down to money. Flash runs fine on a nokia n900 don't listen to the fanboys ^^

 

[*LTD*]

H264 is 5million per year to license

It's royalty-free until 2016.

 

[AppleFan1984]

It's royalty-free until 2016.

Ah, but there's the rub - while they do get to claim that it's "royalty-free" temporarily, apparently there are other fees:

On February 2, 2010 MPEG LA announced that H.264-encoded Internet Video that is free to end users would continue to be exempt from royalty fees until at least December 31, 2015. However, other fees remain in place. The license terms are updated in 5-year blocks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264#Patent_licensing

Who knows how much the license fees will add to the existing fees in a few years.

Looks like a cash cow to me....