Update: 1530CST: The press release link is now live again on the Entriq site as well as the “News” Section. From my sources, it appears there was a small dustup over the release between Widevine and Synchrous, their reseller in Taiwan. I doubt we will ever hear what truly happened here.

Update: 1125CST: I just spoke with a very rude gentleman from ABI Research who told me that my request to speak with Zippy Aima regarding this announcement was denied because ABI “does not make their analysts available to anyone but customers.” Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Calling Widevine now.

Today my inbox was awash with emails from associates and news monitoring sites about Widevine’s announcement that:

“WIDEVINE LICENSES DRM AND ADAPTIVE STREAMING FOR APPLE IPHONE TO SYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATIONS”

along with this link: www.widevine.com/pr/174_sync_iphone.html

Within 20 minutes of this happening, the link went dead and all info about the release has been scrubbed from Widevine’s website. I am going to speculate that Apple’s lawyers came down hard on Widevine for making this announcement. I am not exactly sure why but given it’s abrupt removal from their site, I can only speculate they got a Cease and Desist from Apple’s lawyers or a nasty phone call.

The release is gone and any mention of it is now gone from the News section of the Widevine site as well:

http://widevine.com/news.html

For those of you that missed this “announcement” the full text of the release is here:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WIDEVINE LICENSES DRM AND ADAPTIVE STREAMING FOR APPLE IPHONE TO SYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATIONS

Enables service providers to deliver video entertainment direct to iPhone subscribers

Seattle, WA and Taipei, Taiwan, June 29, 2009 — Widevine® today announced Synchronous Communications Co. has become a licensed reseller of Widevine DRM and Adaptive Streaming for the Apple® (NASDAQ APPL) iPhone. Synchronous Communications is a long standing provider of IPTV DRM technology to Chunghwa Telecom (NYSE: CHT), one of the largest IPTV service operators globally and the exclusive distributor of the iPhone in Taiwan.

“Widevine has solved the iPhone delivery challenge by giving service providers complete control over the consumer experience from delivery to playback,” said Brian Baker, Widevine CEO. “Service providers everywhere can now utilize Widevine to extend mobile services through their own branded video portal.”

The Widevine DRM solution also enables Synchronous Communications to apply a variety of business and usage models to entertainment services targeted for the iPhone. These include: mobile PVR downloads, purchases, rentals, subscription services and offline playback. Widevine’s Adaptive Streaming solution adjusts video quality on the iPhone to available bandwidth, ensuring the best possible video experience at all times.

“Widevine is the enabler we’ve been looking for to extend TV services to mobile entertainment platforms,” said William Liu, General Manager of Synchronous Communications. “Their innovation and leadership continues to help us remain ahead of competition with a solution that would keep Chunghwa Telecom subscribers satisfied in the living room and on the road.”

Synchronous Communications and Widevine jointly supply content protection and network infrastructure solutions that power Chunghwa Telecom’s TV entertainment services. Chunghwa Telecom is the leading TV entertainment and mobile provider in Taiwan.

“The iPhone’s rise to smartphone dominance has transformed the potential for true mobile entertainment,” said Zippy Aima, Sr. Analyst at ABI Research. “Widevine’s support for the iPhone and iPod Touch is a great example of how PayTV and internet video providers can continue to expand high quality entertainment to ultramobile platforms while improving consumer loyalty, regardless of where or when they connect.”

Widevine’s multiplatform DRM and Adaptive Streaming is available for service providers globally. For more information visit: www.widevine.com/iphone.

About Widevine
Widevine provides digital media solutions for the delivery of digital entertainment to any device. Hundreds of service providers use Widevine’s multiplatform, multiformat DRM and video optimization solutions for securing high quality video and audio. Today, millions of consumers enjoy digital entertainment secured and optimized by Widevine on retail consumer electronics devices and legacy STBs from all major consumer brands. With over 55 patents Widevine is an industry leader and innovator of content protection and video optimization technologies.

Widevine is a privately held corporation headquartered in Seattle, WA, funded by Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Charter Ventures, Constellation Ventures, Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd (DNP), PaceSetter Capital Group, Phoenix Partners, TELUS (NYSE: TU) and VantagePoint Venture Partners.

For more information: www.widevine.com.

Contact:
Matt Cannard
Widevine
+ 1 206 254 3124
mcannard@widevine.com

All Rights Reserved. Widevine, Widevine Cypher, Cypher Virtual SmartCard, Cypher VOD, Cypher DCP, Cypher Broadcast, Cypher Express and Widevine Mensor are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Widevine Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. No express or implied warranties are provided for herein and all specifications are subject to change. The descriptions of Widevine Technologies’ patents and other intellectual property herein are not intended for use in a legal proceeding to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the patents or their claims, or indicate that a Widevine patent claim(s) are materially required to perform or implement any of the listed items.