Adobe teams with Industry Leaders for Open Screen Project

The project is dedicated to driving rich Internet experiences across televisions, personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics. Also supporting the Open Screen Project are leading content providers, including BBC, MTV Networks, and NBC Universal, who want to reliably deliver rich Web and video experiences live and on-demand across a variety of devices.

The Open Screen Project is working to enable a consistent runtime environment -- taking advantage of Adobe Flash Player and, in the future, Adobe AIR -- that will remove barriers for developers and designers as they publish content and applications across desktops and devices, including phones, mobile Internet devices (MIDs), and set top boxes.

The Open Screen Project will address potential technology fragmentation by enabling the runtime technology to be updated seamlessly over the air on mobile devices.  The consistent runtime environment is intended to provide optimal performance across a variety of operating systems and devices, and ultimately provide the best experience to consumers.

To support this mission, and as part of Adobe’s ongoing commitment to enable Web innovation, Adobe will continue to open access to Adobe Flash technology, accelerating the deployment of content and rich Internet applications (RIAs). This work will include:

- Removing restrictions on use of the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications

- Publishing the device porting layer APIs for Adobe Flash Player

- Publishing the Adobe Flash® Cast™ protocol and the AMF protocol for robust data services

- Removing licensing fees – making next major releases of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices free

“Adobe is spearheading the Open Screen Project with support from industry leaders who share a common vision to provide rich, interactive experiences across computers, devices and consumer electronics,” said Shantanu Narayen, chief executive officer at Adobe. “A consistent, more open platform for developers will drive rapid innovation, vastly improving the user experience.”

Adobe Flash Player is the world’s most pervasive client runtime, delivering unparalleled creative options, highly engaging user experiences, stunning audio/video playback, and universal reach. Content for Adobe Flash Player reaches over 98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops and more than a half billion handsets and mobile devices today.

Adobe expects more than one billion handsets and mobile devices to ship with Adobe Flash technology by 2009. Flash technology is used to deliver vector graphics, text, interactivity and application logic, video and sound over the Internet. More than 75 percent of broadcasters who stream video on the Web use Flash technology. Adobe AIR is the next-generation RIA runtime for the desktop, supporting HTML, Ajax, Adobe Flash technology and PDF.

The digital explosion across multiple screens is raising consumers’ expectations for engaging experiences wherever and however they connect with content. Web browsing on mobile devices is becoming commonplace, but delivering a consistent rich Internet experience remains a challenge. To ensure that user expectations are fulfilled, software applications and video must work seamlessly across multiple devices and content must be easily available across those devices.

Support for Rich Web Content and Applications Everywhere

Companies supporting the Open Screen Project share Adobe’s vision that a consistent and more open platform across devices will drive rapid innovation that will ultimately be good for consumers. The participants in the Open Screen Project are leading companies in the mobile, desktop and device ecosystems that will contribute in unique ways to this project.

“Delivering a highly responsive, uncompromised Web and rich media experience to consumer devices and the digital home is a key focus for ARM and our partners,” said Warren East, CEO, ARM. “The Open Screen Project with Adobe enables ARM and our partners to optimize and deploy Flash Player and Adobe AIR across billions of ARM Powered® devices and unlocks the ability for hardware optimizations on future ARM® processors.”

“The market is transitioning from the connected home office to the multimedia enabled home,” said Ned Hooper, senior vice president, Corporate Development, Consumer and Small Business Group at Cisco. “Through our Linksys by Cisco product leadership, we can transform life’s experiences by effortlessly connecting people to their digital world at home, at work and on the move. We share a common vision with Adobe and the Open Screen Project, and expect to work together to help enable the fusion of Web, television and user-generated content delivered anywhere, at any time and to any device.”

“Consumers always want more from their devices,” said Doug Fisher, Intel Vice President and General Manager, System Software Division. “Flash Player already reaches the vast majority of Internet-connected computers, and our deep technical collaboration with Adobe will optimize Flash technology and Adobe AIR across a broad range of devices, including a version of Adobe AIR for the Mobile and Internet Linux project, moblin.org. Intel’s broad and rich hardware and software ecosystem combined with Adobe’s Open Screen Project will help us deliver a full Internet experience, whether it be in your pocket, on your lap, at the office or in your living room.”

“Users clearly want full functionality, the same look and feel, and a similar instantaneous user experience as they have on their PCs,” said Dr. Sehat Sutardja, president and chief executive officer at Marvell. “We are very excited Adobe is making this happen through the Open Screen Project by unifying the software requirements across all platforms.  Marvell is contributing to the success of this effort by providing PC class computing horsepower through our advanced application processor technology that is used in many of our mobile and consumer devices.”

“As a long-standing champion of open standards, Motorola supports Adobe’s Open Screen Project and its goal of enabling a more open development experience for the ecosystem,” said Christy Wyatt, vice president, software platforms and ecosystem, Motorola. “We expect the Open Screen Project to further accelerate the use of Flash technology and innovation in mobile applications, interfaces, and platforms, allowing mobile users to experience the richness of the Web on a variety of new devices.”

“Our approach is to empower fans, Web developers and publishers to access, share and interact with our content freely across platforms,” said Mika Salmi, President, Global Digital Media, MTV Networks. “We’re embracing the Open Screen Project so that our fans can continue not only to enjoy our brands, but also build and contribute to them on every device and screen without limitation.”

“NBC Universal delivers a majority of our content in the FLV format across more than 20 streaming video players on our numerous digital properties. We’re excited about supporting this project, which will reduce barriers to Flash technology adoption on non-PC devices and help ensure NBC Universal content can be seen anywhere,” said Darren Feher, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at NBC Universal. “Clearly, devices continue to increase in importance as a means to access rich content and applications, and we are delighted to work with Adobe to deliver great experiences through these additional distribution channels.”

“As a long time strategic partner of Adobe, we are pleased to help launch the Open Screen Project and applaud Adobe’s move toward removing barriers to adoption of Flash technology in the mobile ecosystem. Nokia will continue to deploy Flash runtime technologies on our devices,” said Lee Williams, Senior Vice President, Nokia Devices Software. “Nokia has a long history of pioneering the deployment of Flash technology in the mobile market and we look forward to exploring future opportunities with Adobe AIR for devices. Today’s announcement will help spur a new generation of rich Internet experiences on mobile devices.”

“NTT DoCoMo has long been challenging the evolution of mobile services and Adobe Flash technology has been a crucial part of our success and the work of thousands of mobile developers in Japan,” said Kiyoyuki Tsujimura, Executive Vice President, Managing Director of Products & Services Division of NTT DoCoMo. “As a longtime strategic partner and innovative operator delivering Flash to millions of mobile customers, we applaud Adobe’s move as the next essential step to enable even richer and more expressive mobile experiences. We look forward to working with Adobe and the members of the Open Screen Project to deliver a consistent application runtime environment to devices everywhere.”

“Qualcomm welcomes Adobe’s Open Screen Project,” said Steve Mollenkopf, senior vice president of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. “It aligns well with our BREW mobile platform and highly-integrated chipset solutions, allowing an expanded ecosystem of developers to bring applications and services to users of a wide range of 3G mobile devices.”

“A broad range of our handsets are Flash-enabled based on our belief that an engaging and integrated mobile application and Web experience is essential to our users. Adobe’s Open Screen Project will help to further expand the use of Flash technology across the full family of Sony Ericsson mobile devices to energize communication,” said Rikko Sakaguchi, Head of Portfolio and Propositions, at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. “Flash technology and Adobe AIR are natural fits to Sony Ericsson’s strategy of building on the best of the Open Web Standards and will help provide new mobile experiences to millions of users around the world.”

“The Open Screen Project will make it simple for Verizon and our partners to deliver rich mobile experiences to more devices,” said Mike Lanman, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Verizon Wireless. “As a complement to our Open Developer Initiative, Adobe’s move and our ability to contribute to this initiative will further enable developers and content providers to deliver the next generation of applications using Flash technology and Adobe AIR across mobile platforms and devices worldwide.”