Mozilla Foundation has changed its stance on the H.264 codec stating that it will adopt the standard in the mobile versions of its browser. The foundation has also indicated it will use the codec in
Boot to Gecko, its web-based OS for mobile devices.
Mitchell Baker, the chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation said
on his blog "Mozilla is on the cusp of changing our policy about our use of video codecs and making use of a format known as H.264. We have tried to avoid this for a number of years, as H.264 is encumbered by patents. The state of video on the Web today and in mobile devices in particular is pushing us to change our policy."
Explaining that the change was driven by the users, Baker continued, "One key value at Mozilla is giving our users a great experience. We want to build products that people love and that build openness and user sovereignty into the Web. 'Products that people love' is a key part of this sentence. For the past few years we have focused our codec efforts on the latter part of this sentence."
"We've declined to adopt a technology that improves user experience in the hopes this will bring greater user sovereignty. Not many would try this strategy, but we did. Given this, it's time to shift our weighting. It's time to focus on shipping products people can love now, and to work on developing a new tactic for bringing unencumbered technology to the world of audio and video codecs."
Mozilla CTO and JavaScript inventor
Brendan Eich explained that with H.264 hardware decoders built into most modern-day mobiles, and H.264 content getting near-ubiquitous, it was time for Mozilla to realign its stance.
Eich also promised to explain Mozilla's position on H.264 on the desktop version of its browser at a later stage.