Rovi Connected Platform brings another flavor of Android-to-anything streaming

And then, there were two. Just days after Qualcomm pushed out its DLNA Certified Skifta Android app for streaming content from your smartphone / tablet to just about anything else, along comes Rovi with an awfully similar alternative. The company -- which swallowed up Sonic Solutions just months ago -- obviously has a thing for slinging contained media all over the place, and its new Connected Platform will soon be available pre-ported to Android 2.1 or higher. In short, that'll enable Android devices to beam multimedia stored on their microSD cards to an array of PCs, set-top boxes or NAS devices, which in turn would be connected to a monitor or HDTV of some sort. The dirty details on what kinds of devices it'll support remain murky, but we're hoping to hear more once the app makes its debut in the Android Marketplace sometime this quarter. Something tells us you'll need a phone with a bit more oomph than the Acclaim to actually have decent streaming performance, though.

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Rovi Launches Connected Platform Technologies on Android Platform

Rovi One of First to Bring Connected, Interoperable Device Functionality to Android CE Manufacturers for More Personalized, Media-Centric Consumer Entertainment Experience

Santa Clara - 2/8/2011 - Rovi Corporation (NASDAQ: ROVI) announced today that its Connected Platform technologies will be available pre-ported on the Android™ platform, powering a robust entertainment experience for consumers that will enable them to share and stream entertainment content from their Android devices to a variety of connected devices throughout the home. At the core of Rovi Connected Platform is advanced home networking capabilities that will allow CE manufacturers to quickly and easily deploy interoperable device functionality to their Android based mobile device, phone and tablet product offerings.
Music, photo and video files stored on Android devices powered by Rovi Connected Platform will be capable of sharing media over the consumer's home network for streamed playback on connected entertainment products such as digital TVs, set-top boxes, digital video recorders, Windows 7 PCs and network-attached storage (NAS) devices. Connected Platform on Android will also enable consumers to access and manage their connected devices around their home right from their personal Android device, and stream their personal, premium and recorded content stored on their PC or NAS devices directly to the Android mobile device in the palm of their hand.

"We continue to see rapid growth for the Android platform on a global basis as we estimate that over 15 CE device suppliers will be selling Android-based tablets by mid-2011," said Anna Hunt, principal analyst, IMS Research. "We also believe that Android will hold 15.2 percent of the tablet market in 2011 and project that this will grow to 28.4 percent in 2015."

"Consumers want easy to use media experiences and at the same time are growing the number of devices they use to enjoy entertainment. Sharing among devices is complicated and must be simplified to meet market demand," said Corey Ferengul, executive vice president of product management and marketing for Rovi Corporation. "Pre-porting Connected Platform on the Android platform is a significant step in bridging this gap in the Android ecosystem, enabling device manufacturers to easily integrate robust, standards-based connected device capabilities into their mobile offerings."

The Rovi Connected Platform solution is pre-ported to Android 2.1 and includes a reference User Interface that allows CE manufacturers to customize their Android device offerings. Rovi Connected Platform pre-ported to the Android platform is planned to be available for licensing in Q1 2011.

About Rovi Corporation
Rovi Corporation is focused on revolutionizing the digital entertainment landscape by delivering solutions that enable consumers to intuitively connect to new entertainment from many sources and locations. The company also provides extensive entertainment discovery solutions for television, movies, music and photos to its customers in the consumer electronics, cable and satellite, entertainment and online distribution markets. These solutions, complemented by industry leading entertainment data, create the connections between people and technology, and enable them to discover and manage entertainment in an enjoyable form.

Rovi holds over 4,700 issued or pending patents and patent applications worldwide and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with numerous offices across the United States and around the world including Japan, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom. More information about Rovi can be found at http://www.rovicorp.com/.