Skype Has Adopted VP8 Open Web Standard – But is it Really Open?
Posted on 30. Aug, 2011 by Julian West in Chrome, Chrome OS, News
Just a couple of days after the company released its first iPad app, Skype announced it is embracing the Open VP8 standard. This is the same codec Google developed and is using for Google Talk and Google+ Hangouts.
The latest Windows Skype client uses VP8 for one-on-one video calls as long as the other user has the same version of Skype. This is a big victory for VP8, comparable to Netflix going HTML5. The fact that the VP8 codec is being adopted by such a huge service as Skype despite MPEG LA threatening to form a patent pool, is a good sign for the open web and the future of VP8.
Now you may ask, what does this have to do with Chrome? Well, with Skype moving to an open VP8 standard, greatly increases the likelihood that Skype’s services will be available for Chrome OS users. What is good for the open web is good for Chrome OS. After all, Chrome OS is an operating system that depends on the web for its functionality.
While you can’t say that Skype had Chrome OS in mind when it announced its change in codec, it does show that Skype is getting behind the vision of an open web. The recent development brings to mind an important aspect of Chrome OS as well. The more Chrome OS is adopted, the greater demand there will be for the web service providers to adopt open web standards to great consumer benefit.
Of course, it is unclear what will happen if Microsoft’s purchase of Skype does get approved. It is worth mentioning that Internet Explorer currently only plays VP8 “if a compatible codec was installed.”
What do you think? Do you see a Skype for Chrome OS in the future?
3 Responses to “Skype Has Adopted VP8 Open Web Standard – But is it Really Open?”
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Skype Has Adopted VP8 Open Web Standard – But is it Really Open? | ChromeBytes
30. Aug, 2011
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TBogenC
31. Aug, 2011
What do I think? I think there was a big demand for this prior to Skype becoming Microsoft. Now, I think there is a big demand for a serious competitor to Skype.
Skype has been the best and biggest voip service out there so far. This article indicates that they’re currently headed down the right path embracing open standards. However, with Mr Softie as the new parent, history shows Skype will not remain independent from its parent and will not embrace true open standards.
I dont know if Google is the right competitor to Skype. They could be, but they need to get serious and busy about the current state of voip communications in a hurry – not what is going to be voip communications 10 years from now by playing around at the communication services margins slowly working concepts into their other technologies (gtalk, gmail, gvoice, gdocs).
Maybe some other independent voip player is a better competitor – free of ties to any particular bigger company. But then that’s the conundrum now, isnt it?
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