Basically they’re saying that H.264 is the superior format but there are concerns that MPEG will begin to levy larger fees for its usage.
The primary concern with Ogg is that it will be impossible to improve it without hitting the wall made by patents from other codecs.
And in the end it doesn’t matter because Microsoft won’t support <video> until 2025, when MPEG’s copyrights are set to expire.
The iPhone creates an interesting platform for HTML5 because you don’t have to worry about backwards compatibility. The upside of having such a controlled system is that you can control the environment and allow for the creation of new features and technologies which don’t require backwards compatibility, a huge hurdle to innovation.
Even after HTML5 is implemented in all the major browsers, web apps will have to maintain several versions. This won’t be a big deal for companies like Google, but smaller web apps will be reluctant to implement new features in HTML5 due to the limited exposure. The iPhone provides an environment in which a developer can count on most users having an up to date system.
All of this could be moot depending on if HTML5 was built to be fail back to HTML4 smoothly.
