| Visitors Now: | |
| Total Visits: | |
| Total Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Chrome and H.264 Support
http://www.lockergnome.com/theoracle/2011/01/13/chrome-and-h-264-support/
When I first heard that Google was dropping support for H.264 in the Chrome browser, I was thinking that the news was some sort of interim thing – how they would drop support until such time as the standards were fully defined and ratified.
That may have been too optimistic.
After reading a few stories about this, it seems that the real story has nothing to do with the standard at all, but is instead, a contest of wills between the big players, Apple, Google, Intel, & Microsoft. I was thinking it was more a slap at Microsoft and Internet Exploder 9 than anything, but looking at the latest column from John C. Dvorak on PC Magazine’s site shows that he is of the opinion that it is almost exclusively an Apple-Google battle.
Refreshing our memory that Google CEO Eric Schmidt used to sit on the board of Apple, but no longer does, Mr. Dvorak states that this is a stab at the heart of Apple, since Mr. Jobs has been so openly unkind in his thoughts about the quality of Adobe Flash and its usage on the web.
Dvorak tells about the long history of many feuds in the computer industry, and how long it usually is before they are resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. In one case he points out the Intel-AMD problem started when Andy Grove was leading and that it took 20 years, all the while doing nothing but making the lawyers for both sides wealthy.
The thought that Apple and Google are battling seems odd at first, until the train of thought moves away from computing and to consumer electronics in general.
In that frame of reference, there are a few confrontations that can be occurring simultaneously. Apple TV versus Google TV is the main one, which when the younger generation takes over will be huge.
I’ll admit that I don’t like the interruptions of the signal with IP television due to streaming problems, but my children don’t really seem to mind. I like to watch things at the times they are broadcast if possible, and using other means to watch as a back up; again, my children don’t have any problems at all with watching from a secondary point of transmission, such as the web or a DVR.
Dvorak once again compares Apple and Google stating that Apple is biding its time, waiting for technologies to bloom, while Google jumped in with both feet, and the technology is there, but not nearly as elegant as it will be when Apple brings forth a final product.
H.264 was to be a great deal of that.
So while we have a picture that at first may have been similar to the given us by the second Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Kahn. We may have Schmidt and Google stabbing at the “heart of thee”, but it certainly is not from the deplorable position that Khan had, in his dying breaths, striking back in anger. No, Google is far from being even wounded, and that makes this all the more odd to watch, because this just has to be about more than wounded feelings that Eric Schmidt has concerning no longer being on the Apple board, doesn’t it?
§
Source:
