[Advocacy] persuading mobile phone manufacturers to implement Vorbis support

[Ian Malone]

On 06/05/07, Alexander van Loon <svloon at xs4all.nl> wrote:

> So far I don't know about any phone which can play Vorbis. There are a
> lot more media players which can play Vorbis, such as those from iriver
> and Cowon, yet the more popular media players like those from Creative
> and Apple can't.
>

Actually, if my memory is correct Creative have dabbled in Vorbis.
There are also reports that new cheap Chinese players will do it.
When I get bored someday I'll check.

> If it's possible to play Vorbis with third-party software on Nokia
> phones, what's holding Nokia back to implement it themselves so it works
> out of the box? AFAIK Vorbis is not patent-encumbered, there are no
> license fees, it's 100% free to implement. What could be preventing
> manufacturers to implement it?
>

I can think of two things, how relevant they are is an open question.
The first is that implementing it for their device takes developer
time that they think is best spent doing other things.  To overcome
that you have to persuade them the increase in sales will be worth
their investment.  In fact this is why MailOgging may work better
than a letter from Xiph, if lots of people are asking for a feature it
tells them there is demand.

The second is patent FUD (and this is why the existence of
software patents is poisonous), despite Xiph being confident
that Vorbis is not encumbered there are people who will expect
a patent to be out here.
<http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2059851,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=20>
(The above was an article in the Guardian (UK daily), which
takes several swipes at Vorbis.  There is some discussion of
it over at Hydrogren Audio.  The argument that Vorbis should
be avoided as it might be patented, using MS's recent
thrashing over mp3 as an example is pretty flawed.  If you can
licence a technology and still get sued by a third party then
you may as well just use one that has at least some evidence
it is patent free.)

-- 
imalone