Compression isn't that hard. Having the best VQ is what matters, which makes having the best compression non trivial depending on the content being encoded. What is Two Orioles doing differently that the Elemental's and Harmonic's of the industry haven't done already?
Compression and VQ [=video quality] vs. bitrate are the same thing; it's not about creating small files, but rather small files _which still look great_. IMO the focus of the companies you mention is simply different. Elemental (through AWS) sells encoding services. We sell encoders. The type of client attracted by each of these is fundamentally different.
