Comcast boss Ralph Roberts used his historic keynote at CES2008 to relaunch the industry's new open development platform, tru2way. Formerly known as the OpenCable platform, it is designed to enable two way interactivity in all cable enabled devices.
"Now, a software developer can write an application once--a gaming application, an entertainment application, even a service like TiVo and it will work on a tru2way-enabled device, regardless of manufacturer, and across virtually every cable system," Roberts told CES attendees. He did not mention it will also save the industry a lot of development expense.
The vigorously independent CE industry lobby has opposed the platform, in particular the signing of what it says are onerous licensing agreements and have been pushing their own protocol called DCR+. Pointedly, Roberts also showed off several set top boxes from Motorola, Panasonic, LG and Samsung which are using the tru2way platform, suggesting the CE industry may be divided. The whole issue has gone off to the Federal Communications Commission where chairman, Kevin Martin is being asked to adjudicate. Which should be more than interesting given the brawl over Comcast's dominance last year.
For more:
- Comcast launches tru2way Article
- Two way battle reaches FCC Article
- FCC opens net neutrality inquiry Article
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- FCC to step into two way spat Article