Apple joins dynamic media consortium [u]

Other companies who enlisted as members alongside Apple include Acrodea, DAZ3D, Dell, Google, Gremedy, Codeplay, and S3 Graphics.

Khronos Group members work together to define open standards for the authoring and acceleration of dynamic media on platforms ranging from embedded systems such as mobile phones to high-performance desktop and workstation systems.

Word of Apple's enrollment in the group comes at a time when there are an increasing number of reports that company may be on the verge of entering the mobile phone market with an iPod-branded handset and associated wireless service.

Also on Monday, Khronos Group announced that the OpenGL Architecture Review Board has elected to turn over control of the OpenGL standard to Khronos.

OpenGL is the most widely adopted environment for developing portable, interactive 2D and 3D graphics applications and has been an instrumental component of Apple Mac OS X operating system over the years.

"Khronos has been leading the charge in media standards for the mobile industry for over four years, and now with this increased membership and the integration of the OpenGL ARB, Khronos has truly become the place to be if your company has any interest in open standards for dynamic media and graphics on any platform," said Dr. Jon Peddie, president of the Tiburon CA based market research firm Jon Peddie Research.

"The lines continue to blur between different classes of devices — and so it is crucial to have a single body that is able to drive a coherent set of cross-platform standards to create new market opportunities for the entire graphics and media industry," Peddie added.

Any interested company may join the Khronos Group for a $5,000 yearly membership fee.

Other notable members of the group include ARM, ATI, BenQ, Broadcom, Epson, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Intel, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Nvidia, Panasonic, Philips, Qualcomm, Samsung, SGI, Sony and Toshiba.