Three Million Developers Coming to a TV Near You? Adobe Flash and Air Coming to Samsung TV App Platform

Posted by Richard Kastelein in Breaking News on January 09, 2011  |  2 Comments More from this author  |    |  Follow Richard Kastelein on: Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube

Some three million Adobe Flash developers will soon have the chance to build TV Apps using Adobe Air 2.5 since Samsung and Adobe announced this week that Samsung's Smart TV platform will be the first to integrate support for Air for TV, making it easy for coders to build, distribute and monetize standalone applications through Samsung's TV app platform.

The integration of AIR for TV with Samsung's Smart TV platform will create new opportunities for a enormous community of developers who can use Adobe Creative Suite 5 to author content for AIR for TV. All of Samsung's 2011 Smart TVs and Smart Blu-ray players will include support for Adobe AIR for TV.

"Together, Samsung and Adobe are transforming the ways in which consumers interact with devices and content, providing rich, interactive applications built with industry-leading, cross platform tools."

Samsung also announced plans to bring Adobe Flash Player 10.1 to its Smart TV browser, extending the company's current support for Flash Player 10.1 on Samsung smartphones and tablets. With the addition of Flash Player 10.1, users will enjoy a more complete web browsing experience on the TV, with access to millions of websites with rich videos, games and other multimedia content.

"Adobe is a key partner for Samsung and we are thrilled to be the first TV manufacturer to support Adobe AIR across the Samsung Smart TV platform," said Boo-Keun Yoon, President of Samsung's Visual Display Business. "Together, Samsung and Adobe are transforming the ways in which consumers interact with devices and content, providing rich, interactive applications built with industry-leading, cross platform tools."

"Content publishers want to extend their reach from smartphones to the largest screen in the home – all without sacrificing the unique context and experience of each screen," said Shantanu Narayen, president and CEO of Adobe. "Samsung is the first device manufacturer to embrace Adobe AIR for TV, and together we will enable developers to extend media applications, social games and other forms of rich content to televisions and a wide range of Samsung devices."

With Samsung's Smart TV platform and Adobe AIR for TV, developers are able to leverage existing code to create and deliver standalone applications across devices and platforms. The Samsung Smart TV platform was built with the developer in mind, enabling content creators to develop applications on an open platform, using common web standards like Javascript and XML and now support for Adobe AIR. The platform uses a single Software Developer Kit (SDK) for Apps that runs across HDTVs, Blu-ray players and Blu-ray Home Theater systems so developers can write once and deploy apps across several platforms. This gives developers the opportunity for more versatile monetization and enables a consistent and intuitive experience for consumers.