Flash Devices
Monday, October 03, 2005
Flash Player 6 for Pocket PC is No Longer Available
As of this morning the Flash Player 6 for Pocket PC is no longer available for download from the Macromedia site. This page provides answers to some FAQs that you may have regarding this.

For those of you who are developing Flash content for Windows Mobile devices be assured that we are still supporting the Windows Mobile platform (Pocket PC) and will provide new articles and sample files on a continuing basis.

If you have any questions about this you can send them to mobiledeveloper at macromedia.com. Feel free to also post any comments here as well.

26 comments

Is this because a newer version is coming... or now will average users just be SOL?

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Oct 03, 11:35:00 AM PDT  

Wow, talk about killing Flash on devices... What a suckass proposition. And their standalone player blows to boot (no enhanced functionality). What are they thinking?

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Oct 03, 06:01:00 PM PDT  

Adobe much?

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Oct 03, 06:21:00 PM PDT  

I wonder what's next? Pulling the free PC player? Is it time to pull out your wallet to continue to view Flash content? If that's the case, next competitor to the blocks - sionara Macromedia. Flash Platform... Yeah, sure.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Oct 03, 06:23:00 PM PDT  

And the player appears to cost A$760!!!

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Oct 03, 08:40:00 PM PDT  

This greed is positively unbearable. Flash player for Palm? Sure. Buy a Clie. What? It's the Palm platform? Yeah, but Sony paid us, no one else did. Result? No Palm player.

Flash became ubiquitous because the player was free. What ASSHOLE will pay more than the cost of the device for a Flash player?

Remember the days when Apple tried to charge a per copy price for VR? What happened? NOONE used VR until they dropped that insane plan.

I hope you save some of this blood money, Macromedia. This is NOT the way to make the player ubiquitous in the Mobile arena.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Oct 03, 09:22:00 PM PDT  

Is there an explanation somewhere for the decision? I am curious what the motivation is.
I suppose this means that Flash Assist and Flash Assist pro will no longer work. (for those that do not have the flash player.)

By Anonymous topherZ , at Tue Oct 04, 12:21:00 AM PDT  

What an absolute joke. I have a Pocket PC Device, I want to view a website with Flash Content, but now I can't?? Macromedia have taken their first step towards a downhill spiral.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Tue Oct 04, 01:34:00 AM PDT  

Crazy. I hope there is a plan for the future, and 'player download no more' is not the end of the story. A different pricing model for the standalone is needed, as is a functional standalone. Macromedia should consider looking at MDM Zinc or the Bryht tool. Connections to local database elements and other enhanced capabilities are really going to be valuable in this space. I would like to see a tiered licensing model. If I'm developing a prototype, I don't know if I'm going to make money - I don't really need / want to shell out $$$ if I'm not sure I'm going to make money. Maybe something like this:

Per deliverable or product (based on US dollar:) :

1 – 50 distributions : $25 ($25 per block of 50) ::: (50 cents / ea)
1 – 100 distributions: $45 ($45 per block of 100) ::: (45 cents / ea)
1 – 1000 distributions: $125 ($125 per block of 1000) ::: (12.5 cents / ea)
1 – 10000 distributions: $750 ($750 per block of 10000) ::: (7.5 cents / ea)
1 – 100000 distributions: $2500 ($2500 per block of 100000) ::: (2.5 cents / ea)
1 – 500000 distributions: $7500 ($7500 per block of 5000000) ::: (1.5 cents / ea)
Unlimited distribution: $10000

Macromedia, now is not the time to stifle innovation in the PPC arena. The reason there hasn't been a boom in handheld applications is because tool vendors haven't enabled it. Make tools available that don't throw up barriers and we may see a release of useable applications based on the 'Flash platform'.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Tue Oct 04, 04:05:00 AM PDT  

No!! I can only hope that flashlite 2.0 is about to be released. Maybe it will work on PPC as well as smartphones.

The timing is bad for me. I work for a major real estate company and I am developing a mobile app with flash for ppc. I'll have to hold off for now and hope for the best.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Tue Oct 04, 06:40:00 AM PDT  

You have got to be kidding me... WTF???

What exactly is the angle here?

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Tue Oct 04, 07:19:00 AM PDT  

what will fill the place of the free player? Is there a new one on way? and what other players are going to be affected flash lite maybe???

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Tue Oct 04, 03:14:00 PM PDT  

If this had happened last month, I would NOT have upgraded to Studio 8. I'm pretty disgusted with Macromedia at this point. I have clients running apps that rely on the availability of the player, and plans to build better apps next year. Applying leverage against vendors in the face of your developer community is a BAD move Macromedia. I wouldn't have given a second thought to trying alternate techs before, but I question Macromedia's loyalty to the developer community - which throws my loyalty to your technology into question. Maybe Microsoft has a shot at taking RIA and portable presentation layer apps by storm. Let's hope so.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Wed Oct 05, 04:33:00 AM PDT  

Pathetic decision. What are thay saving by pulling it off ? Just leave it. Nothing else to say. I guess we no longer need to hope for a FP8 on Windows mobile.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Wed Oct 05, 10:17:00 AM PDT  

Avalon is the future:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/building/presentation/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnlong/html/wpf101.asp

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Thu Oct 06, 05:52:00 AM PDT  

OutRAGEus....
Macromedia, you make me SICK!

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Thu Oct 06, 07:18:00 AM PDT  

Effectively, what Macromedia is eluding to here is that FlashLite is the new future of the consumer device arena.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Thu Oct 06, 07:48:00 AM PDT  

Macromedia?

If you aren't going answer, can you at least give an ETA for an official announcement/explanation?

I think it is just a matter of simple corporate manners.

By Blogger Tony , at Thu Oct 06, 03:10:00 PM PDT  

Here's the explanation:
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/devices/articles/fp6_pocketpc_removal.html


Kiss the asses of those who have bought licensing for the player (The user experience on HP and Toshiba devices is far superior to other Pocket PC devices). It's weak to take that stance based on a business relationship. I want to see Macromedia back that up with some facts.

It's about money. They are a business and this is understandable, but lest they forget what their main source of income is???

Developers that buy the tools... Developers that convince clients that Flash is a good move, because they have faith in the stability of the platform. This decision lands a blow squarely on the jaw of the developer. And I, for one, have significantly less faith in the Flash platform than I did before this announcement. I have little faith that Macromedia won't do the same to the PC plug-in in the coming months...

I'm going to be investing time in Avalon research. It may well be what I recommend to clients (instead of Flash) from here on in -- at least for Windows clients, that's what we are talking about with PPC anyway. And Java is smelling pretty. Have I found a company that I like less than Microsoft for its business practices? Yes I have.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Fri Oct 07, 06:40:00 AM PDT  

It's funny when people get irate at the realisation that corporations can control the release and price of their products. OK, I am also laughing at myself but this isn't like the government just withdrew benefits to taxpayers.

We have a choice as a development community. And I don't mean a 'shout into the void so they'll see we're annoyed and get scared'. I mean develop and support (as a previous poster has metioned) alternative technologies. And if you think there aren't any suitable contenders we've either become to complacent or too stupid over the years.

I will admit, I have invested (and risked) a lot on Flash over the last five years and on the PC platform, I'm still a happy man, but I'm turning in new directions on the pocket PC platform - and where will that be in 5 years time? Ubiquitous? There's a good chance.

For those of you who are truly angry with MM / HP / Toshiba, hit them where it hurts. Ignore Flash on these devices. The community holds the power here if we work together. This could end up being one of those "Business Blunders" they refer to in MBA schools in years to come....

By Anonymous Gareth Nixon , at Fri Oct 07, 08:39:00 AM PDT  

We want to continue supporting developers who are creating Flash content for a wide range of platforms - including Pocket PCs. It's important that we listen to what the developer community says and to provide information and resources when possible.

As a developer who started with Flash Player 4 for Pocket PC back in 2001 I know how important it is to be able to create Flash content for the Pocket PC platform.

Just so you know we're actively listening to the discussion around the recent removal of the free FP6 for PPC download from our site and may have more information to share soon.

By Blogger Bill , at Sun Oct 09, 02:49:00 PM PDT  

Gee Microsoft breaks the flash player on their OS and people get up in arms and blame Macromedia...and then say they are going to investigate the 3d rate MS alternative? Real smart....

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Oct 10, 12:36:00 PM PDT  

If you have an alternative suggestion that's actually feasible *and* futureproof, we're all ears...

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Oct 10, 01:56:00 PM PDT  

if youre able to come up with a nice flash lite player for free on all mobile perhaps theres some sanity in it, but this is just pushing interesting people away. ******s

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Oct 10, 03:25:00 PM PDT  

How are we supposed to test content on a PocketPC? Shouldn't they have a developer's version?

If not, this is a stupid move.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Oct 10, 06:15:00 PM PDT  

No need to use Adobe Flash SKD. Our company development Flash Engine that can replace Flash SKD. Our solution support upto Flash 8.0 for ARM base products. NO OS NEEDED. Very suitable for portable devices such as PMP, portable game unit, set-top box, mobile phone, etc.
Detail as follows.
1) Flash clip, MTV, Flash video player
2) Support AS and play back flash games
3) Support customer flash base GUI

Any interest, feel free to contact us.
WRTime Inc
Contact person: Hilbert Wong
e-mail: hilbertw@gmail.com

By Blogger Hilbert , at Wed Aug 01, 08:32:00 PM PDT  

Post a Comment