Apple joins Alliance for Open Media as a founding member

Apple has joined the Alliance for Open Media as a founding member, reports CNET. The group’s initial project – AOMedia Video – pursues a new, royalty-free video codec specification and open source implementation based on the contributions of Alliance members and the broader developer community, along with binding specifications for media format, content encryption and adaptive streaming.

In addition to Apple, founding members are Amazon, ARM, Cisco, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix and NVIDIA. The Alliance’s initial focus is to deliver a next-generation video format that’s:

• Interoperable and open;
• Optimized for the Internet;
• Scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth;
• Designed with a low computational footprint and optimized for hardware;
• Capable of consistent, highest-quality, real-time video delivery; and
• Flexible for both commercial and non-commercial content, including user-generated content.

Among the Alliance’s goals is the creation of a new, high-quality open video codec that improves core media experiences for all. This crucial to keeping your phone from running out of storage space or your data plan from pushing past monthly limits. But compression technology is useful only when it’s widely supported, and Apple was a major holdout — until this week, notes CNET.

“It’s definitely a pretty significant development and a sign of how times change and persistence pays off,” said Matt Frost, head of media strategy and partnerships for Google’s Chrome team.