JPEG is the standard, is it not? Virtually every Internet graphic is in JPEG format (with a few GIFs thrown in). Personal digital cameras format pics in JPEG. So, why does Microsoft think it's necessary to come up with a new format?...Oh yeah. *Monopoly*
It's the standard for high-content images (photos, etc.). GIFs serve an entirely different purpose (low-content-- logos, etc.).
The problem with Jpgs is this:
"Forgent Sues Over JPEG Patent"
02:00 AM Apr, 24, 2004 EDT
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,63200,00.html
Forgent Networks said Friday it sued 31 major hardware and software vendors, including Dell and Apple Computers, for allegedly infringing on its claim to an algorithm used in the popular JPEG picture file format.
(snip)
The last report that I heard of this lawsuit was 2 years ago, so I don't know the current status. But given some of the software lawsuits that have occurred recently, Microsoft seems to trying to minimize their exposure to lawsuits by veering away from universal formats. (IIRC, there was a similar lawsuit about Gif usage that caused the increased usage of JPGs. In the past two years, I've seen a number of people who work with graphics drop the jpg and go over to the PNG format "just in case.")
Plus, there's still that whole "possibly grabbing a chunk of the digital camera market" thing.
Yep. Though I would be happy if more of the camera makers offered more formats than just jpegs. A lot don't even offer the ability to tweak the compression settings. It seems silly to tout a high res camera, then use lossy compression.
Imagine, having to request a license for each photo while trying to view a webpage...