Adobe Flash Coming To A TV Near You..

Adobe, the maker of Flash has announced that it is working on a new Flash platform that would be made available to set-top boxes and digital TVs.

The company has tied-up with Broadcom, Sigma Designs and MediaTek-all of whom are in the business of making system-on chips(SoC) for set top boxes.

This strategy signifies Adobe move to extend their boundary beyond just PC and Mobile phones.

In fact, almost 98 percent of PC’s have flash installed. As for Mobile phones, the shipments of devices enabled with FlashLite support is expected to cross the 1 billion mark in 2009 and is expected to more than double and reach a staggering 2.5 billion, according to data compiled by Strategy Analytics.

Adobe says the initial launches will be for the digital televisions and will be seen later this year. These will be followed by set top boxes. Strangely, Adobe has not listed any TV manufacturers who have agreed to incorporate flash. This move would help adobe in a significant manner as digital TV is gaining storng foothold across the globe.

Adobe is already competing against Microsoft with Silverlight which is used by Netflix and the British Broadcasting Corporation, among others, and was used by US firm National Broadcasting Co. last year to stream the Olympics.

However, Silverlight does not have the market penetration of Flash which has rather become the de-facto standard for displaying rich web content. Today adobe flash is used widely across the web with majority of video streaming portals using its proprietary flash format.

This strategy may also lower overhead cost for publishers and increase investment in web video content as they would be able to pan out their videos made in flash to TV audience too. For consumers, it would mean viewing a video clip or Internet application on a TV or mobile phone and integrating their online video library to their living rooms.