Andre Yoskowitz
8 Aug 2011 15:32
Following an already overly rough year, Dolby announced last week that Microsoft's Windows 8 OS might leave its technology out.
Since 2007, Microsoft has included Dolby surround sound tech in its Windows operating systems, and the licensing agreement accounted for 12 percent of the company's total revenue.
"(We) have recently learned that our technologies are not currently included in the Windows 8 operating system under development. If our technologies are not included in the commercial version of Windows 8, we expect to support DVD playback functionality by increasingly licensing our technologies directly to OEMs and ISVs, and we will seek to extend our technologies to further support online content playback," read Dolby's statement.
Microsoft did not give a public reason for ditching Dolby, but it appears that adding the tech was no longer a selling point so saving the money seemed prudent.
Many PC makers license the tech directly, regardless.