Adobe Open Screen Project Unleashed

Adobe Open Screen Project is a new venture supported by several industry leaders to create applications that work across PCs and mobile cell phone devices.

Adobe Inc announced the Open Screen Project on Thursday which is a new venture supported by several industry leaders to create applications that work across PCs, mobile cell phone devices and televisions.

Industry aliances of the Open Screen Project include ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics Inc., Samsung, Verizon Wireless and Qualcomm.

The project will allow application developers to create programs that work on devices from different companies. In an effort to promote Flash, Adobe said it will eliminate some restrictions on SWF and FLV/F4V software and end licensing fees for the Adobe Flash Player, Adobe AIR, etc, making it easier for companies to build Internet applications which are rich in media.

"The idea is to write an application that doesn't have to be tweaked to run on the different devices," Gary Kovacs, general manager of Adobe's mobile group ,said.

Motorola Inc., Toshiba Corp. and Verizon Wireless are also part of the project, Adobe said. The company has signed up content providers such as the British Broadcasting Corp. and Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks.

The Open Screen Project’s aim is to allow for runtime technology to be updated over the air on mobile devices and other devices.

Adobe said in March that its Flash Lite software, which lets mobile devices display Web-based video and animation, is available on more than 500 million handsets worldwide. The company expects to reach 1 billion devices by the middle of next year.