Adobe Flash On Every TV -- Done Deal

Flash worked well and performed well and basically just did what it was supposed to do so well that it almost instantly became the defacto platform for animation and video on the web.  The other guys keep trying -- like Microsoft with it's "Silverlight" video platform. 

As with QuickTime and Real, Silverlight has a feature or two that are nice but they are all too proprietary &/or tightly linked with a marketing philosophy demanding advantage-over-consumers and, thus, they all lose advantage to Flash.

When YouTube came along and used Flash to unleash the flood of web-based video that was sort of the last straw for video in the first and second eras of the web. 

The third era of the web is now emerging. Until now the World Wide Web has been a thing that lived on a specialized device -- mainly a computer connected to the Internet. In the second era of the web, the device began to change and the web would show up on handheld computers and even telephones but always dedicated to being the web being seen on a specialized device.  In the third era of the web, the web begins merge with other platforms and not just to appear on them.  The web appears as "something else" -- like a TV show.  And not just a TV show on your computer, but a TV show on your TV. Or on your computer. Or whatever.

For the last few months Adobe -- the owner of Flash -- has been announing deals for Flash technology to be incorporated into more platforms and, significantly, into the raw chipsets that manufacturers use to make all sorts of devices. Cable boxes, DVRs, TVs and even things like refrigerators.

Adobe's strategy has been visible but unspoken per se until today. Today Adobe put the strategy in clear focus by revealing the broad and deep array of "partners" committing to Flash as a platform.  These include content makers and hardware makers and the hardware makers include the raw materials chip makers like Intel and Broadcom to the consumer product set-top box and game and DVD player makers through to the consumer hardware sellers/leasers like Comcast.  The content makers range from actual producers like Disney and the New York Times to distributors like Netflix and the cable companies.

I'm tempted to say "give it up" to Microsoft and Apple. But competition is always good; right?  So go ahead and keep trying you guys. But for now it looks like Flash is the platorm for the third era of the web.