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The problem is that content providers have yet another option to choose from, but so far one that is supported by almost no one. Firefox will support WebM, and so will Chrome, so to reach those browsers you either need WebM, or Flash.

Flash also supports h.264 video, as do most mobile devices (Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Windows Phone 7, Zune even) and game consoles (XBox, PS3, and afaik the Wii). In fact from what I can tell, the only platform that doesn't support H.264 is Firefox without Flash. Compare that to the massive amount of existing platforms and devices which don't support WebM (and have no hardware WebM decoding), and it seems like moving to WebM makes much less business sense.



Software decoding video isn't really that big of a deal. Even mobile processors are powerful enough...

(yes, it'll consume battery like a dry horse drinks water in a desert)


> (yes, it'll consume battery like a dry horse drinks water in a desert)

For mobile devices, that's a huge deal. There are no resources more scarce than battery power on a mobile device.


I don't disagree, but Android users seem to get by more or less "ok" without hardware 264 decoding (at least the ones who have devices without hardware decoding).

Personally, I just leave my mobile devices plugged in most of the time anyway so they're always topped off, but that's just me.


>mobile devices plugged in most of the time

DOES NOT COMPUTE.


Well, having a desk job does tend to make me stay in one place for the most part. If I know I'm going to be sitting there for longer than an hour -- I plug it in.

In the car? Plug it in.

etc.


That's the fast way to ruin your batteries. Don't do it.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Battery_memor...




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