Apple Set to Withhold Latest QuickTime

Apple Computer Inc. said it plans to withhold the new version of its popular QuickTime digital media software in a bid to increase support for MPEG-4, an emerging standard for compressed digital video.

Company officials said they objected to a 2-cents-per-hour fee that the 18 MPEG-4 patent holders, including Microsoft Corp., Matsushita, Philips Electronics and Sony Corp., want to collect from the companies that transmit video in that format.

Unless that fee is dropped, Web-based broadcasters and video companies will stick with non-standard technologies such as Microsoft’s Windows Media Video instead of switching to MPEG-4, Apple officials said.

Apple, Microsoft and RealNetworks Inc. are the leading suppliers of software for encoding, transmitting and playing compressed digital video, but their current products all emphasize non-standard technologies.

Apple plans to withhold QuickTime 6, its first software built on MPEG-4, until the licensing fees for broadcasters are dropped.

In a related development, Apple announced an alliance with Ericsson, a leading supplier of mobile phones and related equipment, and Sun Microsystems Inc. to sell video technology to wireless networks. The technology, which will be based on MPEG-4, will enable consumers to receive film clips on their hand-held devices.

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Jon Healey