> It probably would not be a stretch to say that billions of people use these daily.
I think it is a stretch. There are maybe 4 billion people that access the Internet currently and most of those have limited access. Only a fraction of those know about, much less use one of those technologies. To be in the billions, 50% of people accessing the Internet would have to use one of those technologies every day. I just don't believe that is the case.
BTW, this has nothing to say of the technologies themselves. It's great that they exist. The faster we can get rid of royalty the better IMO.
Wikipedia (6th largest website in the world) serves only unencumbered formats. Apple's Siri uses Speex. As does Flash. This stuff shows up in more places than you think, precisely because it allows innovation without asking permission.
If they use Youtube or Skype, they use some of them. Any online/app audio/video chat thing will probably use a mixture.
Depending on how your office VOIP phone works, or the PBX it's connected to, or your POTs carrier, you might be using those technologies. Maybe the CCTV at your work uses them too...
If you are building a multimedia thing, and you don't want to worry about paying for patents, you might reach for one of these. Your users won't know.
I think it is a stretch. There are maybe 4 billion people that access the Internet currently and most of those have limited access. Only a fraction of those know about, much less use one of those technologies. To be in the billions, 50% of people accessing the Internet would have to use one of those technologies every day. I just don't believe that is the case.
BTW, this has nothing to say of the technologies themselves. It's great that they exist. The faster we can get rid of royalty the better IMO.