[M4IF Discuss] What is the REAL advantage?

[KAKARALA,RAMAKRISHNA (A-SantaClara,ex1)]

Dear Sanjay, all
The real advantage MPEG-4 simple profile has over the others
(real networks, windows media, quicktime) is that the hardware 
implementation is relatively straightforward.
MPEG-4 codec chips are simple and cheap enough to make sense
for inclusion in cellphones, where the battery power and unit cost are
serious 
constraints.  Therefore, there will be MPEG-4 content that 
both comes from mobile appliances, and can be decoded on 
mobile appliances.
These other formats don't comparable hardware solutions.  
Ram
Deal All:
I would like to use this board to clarify my basic doubt about using the
MPEG-4 format for streaming media.
I am doing a study to provide streaming media solutions for consumers and am
considering formats like Windows Media, QuickTime, Real and MPEG4. What is
the real advantage of providing an MPEG-4 based streaming media solution?
Quality/bandwidth issues apart, I am of the opinion that licensing would be
the killer to launching this format in the market (again, this is a
comparative statement to the rest of the streaming media formats). Not to
mention that the rest of the players are already popular in the market and
their codecs are cheaply (if not freely) available.
Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks!
Regards,
Sanjay Kulkarni
Senior Software Engineer
Panasonic Disc Services Corp.
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