Widgets are hot right now. From Internet-connected TVs to set top boxes to information appliances, everyone wants widgets. And a lot of companies are offering new ways to feed web-based content to widgets, from Windows Vista SideShow to Yahoo Widgets to proprietary versions.
Add a new heavy-hitter to the roster of widgets contenders: Adobe.
Adobe, titan of graphic design software, is also the maker of the one of the dominant web audio and video programs, Flash. Now Adobe is positioning Flash as a platform for developing web-connected widgets with its Flash Platform initiative.
Some of the big names that will be supporting the Flash Platform include Broadcom, Comcast, Disney, Intel, and Netflix. Nice to see a mix of hardware, infrastructure, and content providers there. That’s a smart strategy.
Adobe is coming to the widget game a little later than some, but if it can replicate the success of the Flash browser plug-in with the Flash Platform effort, we can expect to see Flash-based widgets popping up everywhere very soon.
