I’ve been researching HDTVs and their potential as an internet device and ran across a press release from the January 2009 CES show on the Vizio site which states that a new line of Vizio TVs will support Flash Lite as a developer platform.

According to the press release…

‘VIZIO’s “Connected HDTV” Platform will incorporate the Yahoo! Widget Engine, which provides an open platform enabling a new class of Internet services, called TV Widgets, to thrive in the TV environment. The platform will also include support for Adobe Flash Lite, which will enable developers to deliver rich applications, content, and video over the Web to the television itself.’

To me this is a very developer friendly statement, and indicates that Vizio expects to see Flash Lite applications for its TV platform. Exactly how distribution of content and applications would work is not clear. I assume that Vizio sees Flash lite as an enhanced “widget” platform, offering capabilities beyond the Yahoo widget environment.

The buzz from CES PRs is that 2009 is the year for internet services on TVs, but how this will take shape is not yet clear. Vizio’s Connected HDTV platform will support both wired ethernet and WiFi N, and connection to streaming video services like Amazon video on demand, Blockbuster video on demand and Netflix. This seems to be a broader offering than “internet capable” tvs from other manufacturers announced at CES, many of which are limited to the Yahoo Widget platform only. Vizio is a top 3 manufacturer of TVs and has 10% share of the US flat panel tv market.

Read the complete PR at Vizio’s web site.

Read statistics on Vizio’s market share, as of November 2008.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 12:24 am and is filed under Internet HDTV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.