This afternoon’s bombshell other than Google TV? Apple, who claims to support “open technologies,” will not be embracing Google’s new VP8 video codec. Jobs, in response to an email, linked to a website that describes VP8 as slower than its H.264 counterpart. While Apple hasn’t officially commented on WebM and the open-sourceness of Google’s latest projects, I don’t think Apple would pursue it for a number of reasons. For one, Apple probably doesn’t want to sleep in the bed of the enemy, and two:
“With regard to patents, VP8 copies way too much from H.264 for anyone sane to be comfortable with it, no matter whose word is behind the claim of being patent-free…”
Be sure to check out The Register for more information. They provide lots of juicy tidbits on the matter, but knowing Apple, the user experience and protecting their relationships with media providers comes first.