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A look at some press releases from January 2009. Wait… wasn’t that 8 months ago? Both Intel and Broadcom both talk about releasing Flash Lite supported hardware first half of 2009. What happened?

 

Intel and Adobe to Extend Flash Platform to TVs

Jan 5, 2009

“Intel plans to ship the first CE3100 with support for an optimized implementation of Adobe Flash Lite before mid-2009.”

“Adobe and Intel are also working together to bring an optimized implementation of Adobe® AIR™ technology to Intel’s digital home platform in the future.”

 

Collaboration Extends Flash Platform Ecosystem to Digital TVs and Set-Top Boxes

Jan 06, 2009

“Broadcom DTV and STB platforms with integrated Adobe Flash support are expected to be available to manufacturers in the first half of 2009″

“With Adobe Flash Lite™ 3 software supported… TV viewers will be able to view Flash based content and applications from popular online providers and entertainment sites.”

 

Analysis

According to both of the press releases the hardware will launch with Flash Lite support. Event the latest version of Flash Lite (3.1) is still ActionScript 2.0 (Flash Lite Fact Sheet). The jump from AS2 to AS3 is very significant. The support is built into the hardware which would suggest it will not be upgradable through a software update. Here are three plausible scenarios based on the information at hand:

Scenario 1:
Hardware launches in the upcoming months with AS2 support. The hardware could all be rendered obsolete when AIR support comes out.

Scenario 2:
The eight months of silence could be due to a realization that obsolete hardware is not an ideal solution. Why not wait until AIR support is ready? This is the one I’m hoping for.

Scenario 3:
They may be taking the time to ensure the hardware can be upgraded. Keep in mind there is an actual physical chip in the hardware that would need to support both AS2 and AS3.

 

Conclusion

Are there scenerios that I haven’t outlined? Of course. The three above are my ‘best guesses.’ What can we expect from MAX 2009? Hopefully some awesome news about Flash for your TV!

Whether it launches in AS2 or AS3, Flash support for televisions will be very cool. You may want to brush up on your ActionScript 2 skills just in case 😉

*Disclaimer*
While it should be obvious, this post is entirely speculation. Adobe has remained completely silent on the topic of Flash for your TV, if anything, a bit too silent. The goal of this post is to get people thinking about the topic so they are ready when the hardware is available.

Resources
Engagethd
Broadcom – Press Release
Adobe – Press Release
Nerd Acumen
Flash Your TV on Twitter

4 thoughts on “Flash Your TV: the suspense is killing me”

  1. In April of this year I spoke with a representative from Vizio over the phone. Vizio is one of the TV manufacturers that is supporting Flash Lite. At this point in time they were intending to use Flash Lite 3.1 standalone and Yahoo widgets on their internet connected TVs which are due out some time in Q4 09.

    Vizio planned to provide a “walled garden” type of environment for content for TV users. From my discussion it did not seem like an open platform where 3rd party developers could easily contribute content or easily test content out on a TV.

    Maybe things have changed since my conversation earlier in the year.

  2. I’ve heard the same thing about Vizio. It appears that they are controlling the apps allowed on their TVs. Lets hope this doesn’t mirror the mobile development arena. Flash Lite is supported on millions of mobile phones but each manufacturer and carrier have their own deployment method. Without a universal ‘app store’ this technology will be greatly restricted and unavailable to the everyday developer.

    Here’s a video demo of the Vizio TVs: http://tinyurl.com/lj8kfg

  3. Here’s a link to a video of Scoble interviewing Anup Murarka from Adobe about Flash on televisions, include a demo of the technology:
    http://www.building43.com/videos/2009/06/26/flashy-future-of-tv/

    It seems that FlashLite 3.1 is shipping now on tvs because that is what is ready to go. Note that Nintendo’s Wii’s browser was recently upgraded to also include FlashLite 3.1. I think Adobe would rather have Internet enabled televisions with their older mobile plugin, rather than nothing. Then early next year we will see the new Flash Player 10 on televisions. Hopefully some will be updated, but I imagine some others won’t resulting in a small batch of hardware with old software for a long time.

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