Whatever happened to QuickTime?
Noticeably absent from this discussion: Microsoft&#x27;s attempts to kill Quicktime(amongst a range of competitor technologies), and their reasonable success in these pursuit.<p>Relevant excerpt:
Microsoft Threatens QuickTime Partners
In addition to providing roadblocks to QuickTime running on Windows, Microsoft also worked to stop QuickTime by threatening its partners to abandon licensing, distribution, or development of anything related to QuickTime, or else prepare to face the retribution Microsoft could deliver.<p>Hardware: Microsoft leaned on its Windows PC OEMs to prevent them from bundling QuickTime; trial testimony revealed specifically how Microsoft took quick steps to block Compaq&#x27;s licensing of QuickTime.<p>While Compaq was enthusiastic about licensing QuickTime to help differentiate its PCs from those of rivals, after Microsoft heard about the plans and expressed its disapproval, the company suddenly withdrew and refused to continue any talks with Apple.<p>Applications: Microsoft also jumped on Avid Cinema, a new consumer video editing product based on QuickTime that long time Apple partner Avid was preparing to release.<p>Microsoft told Avid engineers, &quot;You need to rip QuickTime out of your product if you want to be in this channel.&quot; Months later, Avid announced a partnership with Microsoft on its new AAF format for multimedia authoring.<p>Drivers: Microsoft also pounced on Truevision, a video capture card vendor. After learning that the company was developing QuickTime drivers for its video capture cards, Microsoft invested in the company with the proviso that the company could not market, brand, or refer to the drivers as a QuickTime driver, and could only bundle them with a specific application, not offer the drivers for sale separately.<p>Advanced Authoring Format
Microsoft had backed up its threats to jump into the media authoring business to kill QuickTime entirely by developing the Advanced Authoring Format, the last missing component of Microsoft&#x27;s rival offerings.<p>In June 1998, Microsoft advised Apple that its only remaining choice in the matter would be to agree to a broad technology sharing plan that donated its technology to Microsoft and abandoned its own competitive efforts:<p>•Apple had to agree to cross-license its codecs and collaborate with Microsoft on all future codec development
•Apple had to adopt Microsoft&#x27;s DirectX run-time platform on Windows in place of QuickTime
•Apple had to adopt Microsoft&#x27;s proprietary streaming technology
•Apple had to adopt Microsoft&#x27;s new proprietary AAF file format for media authoring<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.roughlydrafted.com&#x2F;RD&#x2F;RDM.Tech.Q1.07&#x2F;5F0C866C-6DDF-4A9A-9515-531B0CA0C29C.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.roughlydrafted.com&#x2F;RD&#x2F;RDM.Tech.Q1.07&#x2F;5F0C866C-6DD...</a>