> It’s not like Apple can’t bear this cost. VP9 has existed since 2012, Android has supported the format since version 4.4 released in 2013. AV1 was then unheard of. Surely they weren’t working on it then.
4.4 shipped with software support, which meant that it was slow and chewed battery like it was going out of style. You had to wait until around 2015-2016 for hardware decoding support and around 2017 for encoding support before it became competitive.
Even then, however, there's a bigger problem: what really matters is the amount of unique video recorded in VP9, which even Google doesn't seem to do. Apple's users almost never run into the situation where they miss out on something because their device doesn't support VP9. Since the entire industry is moving to the newer AV1 format, the question is whether it's worth taking on the long-term security & support commitment of supporting an old-new format or simply putting those resources into something which will actually replace H.264 as a universally-supported format.
> By not supporting VP8/VP9, they force(d) everyone to support their formats.
This is trying too hard to construct a conspiracy theory: VP8 had no advantages over H.264 and arrived years later. VP9 had no significant advantages over H.265 and arrived years later. The only significant source of original content in either one is WebRTC chat, which is a pretty limited hook to justify a major {development,support,security,patent risk} commitment.
4.4 shipped with software support, which meant that it was slow and chewed battery like it was going out of style. You had to wait until around 2015-2016 for hardware decoding support and around 2017 for encoding support before it became competitive.
Even then, however, there's a bigger problem: what really matters is the amount of unique video recorded in VP9, which even Google doesn't seem to do. Apple's users almost never run into the situation where they miss out on something because their device doesn't support VP9. Since the entire industry is moving to the newer AV1 format, the question is whether it's worth taking on the long-term security & support commitment of supporting an old-new format or simply putting those resources into something which will actually replace H.264 as a universally-supported format.
> By not supporting VP8/VP9, they force(d) everyone to support their formats.
This is trying too hard to construct a conspiracy theory: VP8 had no advantages over H.264 and arrived years later. VP9 had no significant advantages over H.265 and arrived years later. The only significant source of original content in either one is WebRTC chat, which is a pretty limited hook to justify a major {development,support,security,patent risk} commitment.