VP9 Codec Nears Completion

Slightly related to the discussion here: yesterday I found out that the Rasberry Pi is about 10% cheaper because it doesn't include licences for proprietary codecs [1]. As consumer electronics are getting cheaper and open/free licenses are becoming more popular, hopefully we'll see more of this happening.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.com/license-keys/" rel="nofollow">http://www.raspberrypi.com/license-keys/</a>

In case anyone was wondering, like I was how VP9 quality stacks up, here's a comparison: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctjm1kxw-BM" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctjm1kxw-BM</a> (although it's a bit weird since everything is re-encoded for youtube, so take with a grain of salt).<p>To my eyes, VP9 looks roughly on par with h264, but not as good as h265.

Will WebP switch from VP8 to VP9?

I am still a bit confused what the point of VP9 is.<p>Microsoft and Apple pay for the licenses on behalf of developers and users so licensing cost only affects a very tiny minority. And with the likes of Sony (PS), Microsoft (Windows/XBox) and Apple (iOS/OSX/Final Cut) firmly in the H.265 camp why would you produce content for VP9 if no one can play it.