[opendtv] Adobe extends across digital media chain, with handset at the hub

From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:18:40 -0400
Aha. Maybe that previous article about Adobe was simply missing the
bigger picture.

Bert

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http://www.rethink-wireless.com/?article_id=1297

Adobe extends across digital media chain, with handset at the hub
Published : 23/04/2009 by Caroline Gabriel

Just as the operators are waking up to the fact that growth in developed
markets will mean taking their services beyond the handset, so the war
to dominate mobile software is expanding rapidly to new device types.
Adobe is one of the strongest contenders to provide a cross-platform
software framework with its Flash and AIR rich media technologies, and
has made important extensions to its platform this week, taking it into
the heart of portable consumer electronics.

Strobe is Adobe's new software framework for building media players, and
the company has also created an implementation of Flash that is
optimized for high definition video and will take Adobe into internet
connected TVs, set-top boxes, Blu-Ray players and other digital home
products. With the same experience on the PC, handset and TV, the
phonemaker's dream of making the handset into the hub/controller for the
whole media experience comes a step closer.

Strobe is part of Adobe's Open Screen Project, which was formed last May
and promised the new Flash Lite media player "within a year", a deadline
it has just hit. The Project is designed to support Flash Lite, and the
upcoming low-footprint version of full Flash, as the standards for rich
media across all devices and operating systems. Critically, Nokia is a
supporter, and Adobe has leveraged its massive installed base - over
500m mobile devices have Flash Lite installed - to ensure the support of
the top five phonemakers, plus Ericsson itself. Among the chipmakers,
Intel, ARM, Marvell and Qualcomm have signed up.

Now that the first implementation based on OpenScreen has appeared,
Flash Lite's days are numbered - it will transition to the new format
and will eventually be replaced. Strobe, which will be available free in
the second half of this year, promises a consistent runtime environment
across desktops, televisions, handsets and consumer electronics,
providing production-ready software components to speed up development
of custom media players branded to different operators and publishers.
Flash developers will be able to add rich media features like
advertising, user measurement, social networking and tracking more
easily, says Adobe.

Adobe has close relationships with both the key processor companies
fighting to dominate mobile internet and CE devices - Intel and ARM. The
new moves will be important to ARM, which scores on the low power front
but lacks Intel's experience of high end performance. Reports this week
indicate that one of the key problems vendors are finding as they start
to develop low power ARM/Linux netbooks is poor support for high end
video on the processor, as well as a fragmented software base.

The video-optimized Flash Lite runtime for TVs will appear in products,
initially TVs, in time for the holiday buying season, said Adobe
executives. This puts Adobe a step ahead of Microsoft Silverlight, which
has yet to be seen running on TVs. Intel and Yahoo recently launched the
Yahoo Widget Engine for digital TVs, on the Atom processor, and Adobe's
offering has a similar interface.
 
 
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[opendtv] Adobe extends across digital media chain, with handset at the hub

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