Adobe and Industry Leaders Establish Open Screen Project
Technology and Content Innovators to Drive Consistent Rich Internet
Experiences Across Multiple Screens
SAN JOSE, Calif. — May 1, 2008 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE)
today announced the Open Screen Project, supported by a group of industry
leaders, including ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics
Inc., Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics
Co., Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Verizon Wireless. 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.”
For more information about the Open Screen Project, visit the website at
(http://www.adobe.com/go/openscreenproject).
About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information –
anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit
(http://www.adobe.com).