Who will gain from a switch to H.264 over Flash?

There is no question that the h.264 standard is not "free". A group known as MPEG_LA holds the patent and according to Wikipedia, it is free for end users to use until December 31, 2015. As the Free Software Foundation states, it may be more widely published and implemented as a standard than flash, but it is no more "free". I am most curious to know if Apple stands to gain financially from bullying the entire Internet community into using H.264 rather than flash?