Smart TV Alliance introduces five new members and an updated SDK at CES 2013. Panasonic, ABOX42, TechniSat, IBM and Specific Media are joining the club.
The five join Alliance founders LG Electronics, TP Vision (Philips) and Toshiba, as well as YuMe, Obigo and Qualcomm, in creating a non-proprietary ecosystem for application developers to create attractive, platform-independent services.
“Smart TV Alliance members are repairing a fragmented market opportunity for app developers and TV manufacturers, creating the best Smart TV experience for consumers,” said Richard Choi, president of Smart TV Alliance from founding member LG Electronics, in a statement.
“Now app developers can concentrate on doing what they do best. Instead of chasing down each manufacturer’s individual requirements and compliance process, they can make the most out of their creative energy by developing innovative applications and services.”
The upcoming SDK captures the latest trends and features available to app developers so they will be able to deliver the most current and exciting apps for 2013 Smart TVs from LG, TP Vision and Toshiba. The new SDK features include: for 2013 Smart TVs there will be richer applications available from upgraded HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript specifications; 3D video; MPEG-DASH support with more reliable audio and video quality with less stuttering and freezing and more and better content choices with updated digital rights management (DRM) features that reflect DRM requirements from content owners.
For application developers a new common emulator allows developers to test an application once to ensure it will work with Smart TV.
