Updated: December 27, 2023 (September 5, 2021)

Images from Apple Devices Introduce Complexity for B2C

Wes Miller analyzes and writes about Microsoft’s security, identity management, and systems management technologies. Before joining Directions on Microsoft, Wes... more

Apple devices use standards-compatible still and video image formats that are not easily viewable on Windows.
Businesses that must receive image files from Apple users and some Android users will need to take extra steps to fix this incompatibility.
Additional software must be licensed and deployed to each Windows PC to resolve this problem.

Organizations with Windows PCs that regularly receive images and video generated by users of Apple iPhones and iPads may not be able to view these files. While Microsoft has offered home users a solution to this problem, businesses looking to solve it have had to rely on incomplete solutions offered by third parties. A new paid per-device license available from Microsoft may help enterprise customers solve this problem.

What The HEIC?

With the release of Apple’s iOS 11 in 2017, customer devices began capturing images and videos in several new formats:

HEIF: High-Efficiency Image Format
HEIC: High-Efficiency Image Container
HEVC: High-Efficiency Video Coding.

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