It makes a lot of sense for Apple to use H.265 as a base for the format. It's much more efficient than all the other JPEG-killers (easily beats WebP by a wide margin). Apple already pays for the patents, and has invested in H.265 hardware and software for H.265 video.
However, the HEIF wrapper for H.265 strikes me as quite complex. It brings baggage of ISO wrapper formats and tries to support everything ever crammed into any image-ish format. That, in addition to patent licensing, may be another difficulty in widespread support for the format. It will be hard to implement robust, secure and fully-featured players.
However, the HEIF wrapper for H.265 strikes me as quite complex. It brings baggage of ISO wrapper formats and tries to support everything ever crammed into any image-ish format. That, in addition to patent licensing, may be another difficulty in widespread support for the format. It will be hard to implement robust, secure and fully-featured players.