C |Net is reporting a major development in the multimedia standards war for Apple. According to the news outlet, Apple and NTT DoCoMo, Japanis dominant wireless carrier -- the word "docomo" means "everywhere" in Japanese -- have picked QuickTime as the preferred content creation platform for making 3GPP content. 3GPP is one of the most advanced wireless telephony platforms on the market, and is a very big deal in Japan. While there are no 3GPP carriers in the US, which lags behind both Europe and Japan in this area, a deal with DoCoMo will help Apple and the other MPEG-4 advocates position the technology favorably against Microsoftis technologies. From C|Net:
Appleis QuickTime is poised to make headway as an audio and video delivery platform for mobile phones in Japan, with new standards-compatible software on its way and a fresh endorsement by leading wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo.
In coming weeks, Apple will introduce a new version of its multimedia delivery system, QuickTime 6, with support for 3GPP, or 3rd Generation Partnership Project--telecommunications standards for mobile systems. 3GPP is built on the MPEG-4 standard for the delivery of digital audio and video to PCs, set-top boxes and wireless devices.
Appleis coming software dovetails with new 3GPP-compatible wireless technology from Tokyo-based NTT DoCoMo, one of the worldis largest mobile phone operators. On Monday, the wireless carrier, which has about 44 million subscribers, said it will introduce three new 3G (third-generation) mobile phones in the next several weeks that will allow people to view video clips wirelessly, as well as e-mail the video files to a PC, among other new features.
With its 3GPP-compatible QuickTime release, Apple opens the possibility for cell phone users to create videos using its content creation tools, including Final Cut Pro, and view them on NTT DoCoMois next-generation phones. People will also be able to use DoCoMois phones to capture videos, e-mail them to the PC and view them with QuickTime.
The full article includes more information and comments from people in the industry, and is an interesting read.