Over the past 5 years I've presented at over 20 conferences around the world and thought it would be beneficial for the community to have access to the presentations. For me it's been an evolution in terms of presentation style, format and substance and I'm continuing to grow and improve. Being able to share my thoughts, our product and technology direction and samples of mobile experiences help compliment the actual presentation materials.

One thing that I'm experimenting with now is using keynote instead of powerpoint. Each have their benefits and I expect after a few weeks of using keynote I'll have a better sense of a preference.

All of the presentations are in PDF format and if you find them useful please drop me a line.

We have a great new article covering dynamic layouts for Flash Lite applications up on our mobile and devices developer center- check it out!

David Brown from Agencynet wrote the article and in it he covers the technical side of things as we walks through some of his AS code he wrote for the Bacardi Mobile application that we've been demoing since February. Sample files are included and the code will work in Device Central and on any device that supports Flash Lite 2.0 or newer in standalone mode.

Today we announced the Adobe Open Screen Project which is dedicated to ensuring a consistent rich Internet experience across a broad range of digital screens and form factors including mobile phones, consumer electronics, televisions and personal computers. This experience will be driven by Adobe Flash Player and in the future Adobe AIR and is meant to ensure that designers and developers can focus on the consumer experience and know there efforts will scale across different platforms and screens. Simply put the mission of the Open Screen Project is meant to enable a consistent runtime environment for designers and developers across desktops and devices.

Ryan Stewart has some great thoughts about what this means for the desktop space and below are my impressions of what this means for the non-PC space and developers.

Who’s involved
In order for the Open Screen Project to be successful we need the support of companies that believe in this unified vision of the future. These companies include leading chipset vendors, device manufacturers, operators and media companies – all intent to help deliver consistent rich internet applications across a broad range of devices and desktops. These are the initial companies that are involved with the project and we expect other companies will want to join.

• Adobe
• ARM
• BBC
• Chungwha Telecom
• Cisco
• Intel
• LG Electronics
• Marvell
• Motorola
• MTV Networks
• NBC Universal
• Nokia
• NTT DoCoMo
• Qualcomm
• Samsung Electronics
• Sony Ericsson
• Toshiba
• Verizon Wireless

Flash and Adobe AIR to be Free
To support this project we will be opening access to more of our core technologies to help enable web innovation and include these initiatives:

• Removing restrictions on the use of the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications
• Publishing the device porting layer APIs for Adobe Flash Player
• Removing licensing fees – making next major releases of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices free
• Publishing the Adobe Flash Cast protocol and AMF protocol for robust data services

Converging PC and non-PC experiences
Over the past month I’ve traveled to Tokyo, Seoul and New York City and what I hear when talking to various groups of people including device manufacturers, operators, media companies, developers and consumers is how more an more the experience is becoming the key differentiator when consuming content. By us driving the Open Screen Project and working with some of the leading companies in their respected fields, we have a goal to make this happen. I’m really excited about this project and given the companies we have committed so far, our technology roadmap and leading tools for designing, developing and testing applications and content it’s a win-win situation for everyone.

What should mobile developers do
Keep on creating the types of experiences and content you already do for mobile phones using CS3, Device Central and other tools for development and testing. The key thing you should take away from the Open Screen Project is Adobe is committed to providing a consistent runtime across a wide range of devices including personal computers so continuing to build your skills now to develop Flash Lite applications will be part of the future growth opportunities for you and your clients as Flash and Adobe AIR are supported on non-PC devices.

It’s true that today desktop developers can use Flex and Flash to create web content and Adobe AIR applications and mobile developers can use Flash to create Flash Lite content for supported handsets. In the near future desktop developers will be able to use their skills for creating Flash and Adobe AIR applications for more than just desktop PCs. What will improve will be the workflow and output options for Flash and Adobe AIR applications and for us that’s important – to ensure that designers and developers have the best tools so they can focus on the experience.

Types of non-PC devices
One of the main benefits to OSP is the ability for us to provide to designers and developers a runtime environment that works across a wide range of non-PC devices, in addition to the PC space. I use the term “non-PC” often but to give you some context these are some of the types of devices we’re looking to support in the future:

• mobile phones
• mobile internet tablets (MIDs)
• set top boxes
• televisions

Over 1 billion devices by 2009
We’ve updated our device forecast and expect that by 2009 there will be over 1 billion devices that will have shipped that support Flash technologies. Previously we stated that we would reach this number by 2010 – so this is more good news for the Open Screen Project and shows the explosive growth of Flash technologies in mobile phones.

Next steps
If you’re a developer and have read this you’re probably starting to envision a very cool future where you’re able to extend your applications beyond just the desktop and for me that’s the future. I’ve only touched on some of the high-level points here and there certainly will be more news coverage about this initiative over the next few days and weeks. If you have any questions about this please leave a comment here and I’ll answer them.

You can read more about the Open Screen Project here as well as an FAQ.

Usually I'm asked by developers and business people the following questions "what's the percentage of devices in the US that support Flash Lite" or "how many Nokia S60 devices are there in the UK". Providing this type of information to the community is important and you can now download a two page PDF that contains this information.

Data for this PDF was provided by mmetrics and shows the active number of Flash Lite devices as of January 2008 for six countries: US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. Total Flash Lite devices, number of device models and number of addressable devices by platform are listed: Nokia S60, Nokia Series 40, Sony Ericsson and BREW.

Let me know if you find this information useful or what other types of data you'd like to see.

For the month of April, Forum Nokia is dedicating several resources for developers to promote the awareness of their devices that support Flash Lite, tools for creating Flash Lite content and some videos of examples of Flash Lite applications that have been developed.

Also check out Kuneri Lite which is a tool set to extend the functionality of Flash Lite on Nokia S60 devices.

Half a billion or 500 million – no matter how you say it, the number is impressive. Today we’re announcing that Adobe Flash Lite has shipped on over half a billion devices and with 150% growth over last year we expect to reach 1 billion devices by 2010. That’s pretty impressive for a mobile run-time to reach that number in a little over 5 years. Because of our licensing agreements with Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and others (18 of the top 20 OEMs) to pre-install Flash Lite on their devices we’re able to achieve this phenomenal expansion. In addition to working with our OEM partners we also have signed a licensing agreement with Microsoft to have Flash Lite 3 embedded into Internet Explorer Mobile for future versions of Windows Mobile – meaning any future Windows Mobile device will have Flash Lite 3 pre-installed.

If you’re a developer this means that the TAM (Total Addressable Market) is continuing to increase and with new devices from Nokia and Sony Ericsson this year developers can look forward to creating expressive applications and content that will reach more consumers. On a personal note it’s been an amazing ride to see how our technology continues to evolve in the market and reach more and more consumers. Whether it’s for providing a better web experience on a mobile device, allowing consumers to personalize their devices, download and interact with applications or allowing OEMs to create innovative UIs.

Good news, I've updated the Flash enabled devices spreadsheet to include several new handsets that were announced two weeks ago at the Mobile World Congress. You can download the PDF and print it out as a reference for understanding what handsets have Flash Lite pre-installed including the version and content type. Here are the updated models counts by grouping: Nokia (73), Sony Ericsson (63), Verizon Wireless (13), NTT DoCoMo (134), KDDI (101), and Softbank (48).

Just a quick update for everyone that I've updated the devices with Flash Lite pre-installed spreadsheet to include a few new devices and to make some minor modifications based on feedback from handset manufacturers and developers.

Mark Doherty has created and made available several Flash Lite example files (including source code) that include a wallpaper, FL2 network app, FL3 network and Flash Video app, FL3 XMLSocket example and others. They're provided to allow Flash Lite developers better understand how to create these types of use cases and to integrate into their own mobile projects.

I wanted to get some feedback from those of you who have or are in the process of thinking about making your Flash Lite content available to others. Today there are a few options available for distributing other types of mobile content and was wondering what your preferences were and why:

• Paid: end-users pay for your content via one of several mechanisms (direct billing, operator based). Content aggregators assist with distribution and billing. DRM may be required. Your revenue is a percentage of what the aggregator takes.
• Advertising subsidized: ads are inserted into your content and the content is distributed for free to end-users. Distribution is handled by aggregators or through other means (SMS campaigns for example). DRM may be required. Potential revenue is handled between developer and advertising company.
• Free: end-users can share and distribute your content. Distribution is handled by you or a third party. No DRM needed - viral awareness.

In addition to distribution options I'm interested to hear what's more important to you: getting your Flash Lite content out to market (increase your awareness) or making money (selling content).

Leave your comments here - thanks!

I've updated the Flash Lite enabled handsets spreadsheet with the most current information that's publicly available and acknowledged by our handset partners. Latest stats: Nokia = 67 devices, Sony Ericsson = 57 devices, BREW = 13 devices. This includes devices that are available in market today as well as some devices that will be available in either Q1 or Q2 of this year.

Given what's happened in the past at the 3GSM conference, I expect that after the Mobile World Congress next month there will be new devices announced by our partners and will update this information again in early March.

Here you go, a complete breakdown of the forecasted installed base of Flash Lite devices by region, country and version. The information in the PDF is extracted from the Strategy Analytics Flash-Enabled Handset Forecast from January 4, 2008 and provides metrics for the forecasted installed base of Flash Lite devices for the years 2007 and for 2008.

Developers, business owners and decision makers have been asking for this level of detail and we're glad to be able to share it. Six regions are covered: Americas, APAC (Asia Pacific), CALA (Central America/Latin America), Western Europe, Central Europe and Japan. Flash Lite versions include 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.1 and 3.0.

Here's a sample of the level of detail included in this PDF:


We will be posting additional information on our mobile and devices developer center soon and I'll share that information once it's available.

Updated: I found a typo for the 2007 US total and have corrected the PDF. If you've downloaded the PDF before 7:10pm PST tonight then please download the zip file again - thanks.

Strategy Analytics just recently released a new report updating their Flash enabled handset forecast and here are some things they mentioned:

• "Cumulatively, over 301 million FL devices, of which over 90% are cellphones, have been shipped since 2003."
• "In 2008 we will see shipments of Flash Lite-enabled cellphones in the rest of the Asia Pacific region and Western Europe exceed shipments in Japan for the first time since the launch of Flash Lite."
• "A further 1.4 billion FL-enabled phones are expected to be shipped globally over the next three years alone."

There is additional information in their report that we're working on sharing with the developer community and decision makers. Stay tuned for more details.

Forum Nokia has a new dedicated developer discussion board just for Flash Lite and if you're creating Flash Lite content for Nokia devices (S60 or Series 40 platforms) then check it out. It's a great resource as there are actual Forum Nokia employees that monitor the forum and answer questions.

In addition there's also the Adobe Flash Lite for Nokia discussion forum where Adobe employees from the mobile and devices team answer questions.

So there are two community based resources for sharing ideas and finding answers to specific Nokia+Flash Lite related issues. I'll be spending time in both forums to see what I can share as well as learn.

Being able to understand the different ways for designing for non-PC devices such as mobile phones and other consumer electronics is something that continues to evolve. One of the things that I try to do as a developer is to learn from others what's worked and things to avoid. The more knowledge and information I have the better I feel my applications and projects will be.

Over the past 2 weeks I've been reading and referencing "Designing for Small Screens" - a very good book that does an excellent job of explaining the complexities and nuances of small screen devices. You can think of small screen devices as being mobile phones, PDAs, navigation systems, MP3 players and game consoles. One of the great things is there's at least 2 devices in each of these categories that uses the Flash Player or Flash Lite (obviously there are more mobile phones). Even if you're not currently or planning on designing for small screens there are some good ideas in here that may assist you in your PC based designs.



The book does an excellent job of providing real world examples, best practices and exercises covering topics such as physical interaction, layout and color, text and icons, and design considerations. Over a dozen of the examples referenced were Flash Lite applications (T-Mobile News Express) and user interface (NTT DoCoMo iMode menu) among others. There were several things that I learned from the book and so far have improved some aspects of mobile content that I'm developing.

If you're at all interested in designing UIs or developing applications for small screen devices, I highly recommend you purchase this book. You can also check your local library to see if they have it available.

Great news, the waiting is over. Starting today developers can download the Flash Lite 3 Developer Edition for supported handsets via Adobe Labs. You can get all of the information on the site but here are a few key things to mention:

Developer Edition only
This Flash Lite 3 player is for developers only and is not for end-users (consumers) and can not be distributed with any Flash Lite content.

No IMEI required
The installer (SIS file) does not require a developer to provide their IMEI (also known as serial number) to Adobe in order to get the player. Any developer that has a supported device can install the player. There is a brief start-up splash screen that appears each time the player is launched - this is in place because it's the developer edition. Handsets that commercially ship with Flash Lite 3 pre-installed will not have this start-up splash screen.

Standalone Player only
The Flash Lite 3 Developer Edition is only the standalone player and will show up as an icon in the applications folder as "Flash". The pre-installed Flash Lite player that's already on a device will be in the same folder and called "Flash Player" - so there will be two similar icons. Testing of SWF files can only be done through the standalone player; web browser, screensaver and wallpaper content types are not supported.

Supported handsets
The Flash Lite 3 Developer Edition has only been certified by Adobe on the Nokia N95 (non-US 3G version). Technically it should work on any Nokia S60 3rd edition or later devices. Adobe has not certified Flash Lite 3 Developer Edition on any other Nokia S60 3rd edition devices and cannot guarantee that the player will work on them. Other Nokia S60 3rd edition or newer models include: 3250, 5500 Sport, 5700, 6110 Navigator, 6120 Classic, 6121 Classic, 6290, E50, E51, E60, E61, E61i, E62, E65, E70, E90, N71, N73, N73 Music Edition, N75, N76, N77, N80, N80 IE, N81, N81 8GB, N82, N91, N91 8GB, N92, N93, N93i, N95, N95 US 3G, N95 8GB.

Uninstalling a previous version of Flash Lite 3 Developer Edition
If you were a developer who submitted your IMEI number in October and received an early version of the Flash Lite 3 Developer Edition in October it's recommend you uninstall the current version and install this new version.

Developing Flash Lite 3 content
In order to create Flash Lite 3 content developers will need to update both Flash CS3 and Device Central CS3 - both are free updates.

So head on over to the site, download and install the player and share your thoughts with the community.

There's a new 7 page Flash Lite feature comparison chart (PDF) that compares all of the features and supported ActionScript commands and APIs against the most recent desktop Flash player versions. Information like media support, APIs, system requirements and text support are included.

It provides information on the following Flash/Flash Lite players:

• Flash Lite 1.1
• Flash Lite 2.1
• Flash Lite 3
• Flash Player 7 SDK
• Flash Player 8
• Flash Player 9
  

This is useful if you're a desktop Flash developer who's interested in creating Flash Lite content and want to better understand what features of the desktop Flash player are compatible. It's very handy and what I've done is printed it out and posted it in my cube to easily look up information without having to open up the help files, go to a site or ask someone.

Here are a few easy to remember URLs to quickly access relevant links and information within the Adobe mobile and devices sites both in English and other languages:

General

• BREW developer site (www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/brew.html)
  
• Getting started (www.adobe.com/go/4it)
• Flash Lite exchange (www.adobe.com/go/mobileexchange)
• Flash Lite trainers and training courses (www.adobe.com/go/mobiletraining)
• Mobile and devices case studies (www.adobe.com/go/mobilecasestudies)
• Mobile and devices CDKs (www.adobe.com/go/mobilecdks)
• Mobile and devices developer center (www.adobe.com/go/mobiledeveloper)
• Mobile and devices discussion forums (www.adobe.com/go/mobileforums)
• Mobile developer program (www.adobe.com/go/mobileprogram)
• Mobile developer technical support plan (www.adobe.com/go/amdpplan)
• Mobile events (www.adobe.com/go/mobileevents)
• Mobile user groups (www.adobe.com/go/mobileusergroup)
• Mobile webinars (www.adobe.com/go/mobilewebinars)
• Selling your Flash Lite content (www.adobe.com/go/sellmobilecontent)
• Upcoming mobile and devices live webinars (www.adobe.com/go/mobilelivewebinars)

Localized

• Japanese mobile and devices developer center (www.adobe.com/go/mobile_jp)
  
• Korean mobile and devices developer center (www.adobe.com/go/mobile_kr)
• Simplified Chinese mobile and devices developer center (www.adobe.com/go/mobile_cn)
• Traditional Chinese mobile and devices developer center (www.adobe.com/go/mobile_tw)

Product

• Device Central online (www.adobe.com/go/dconline)
• Device Central product page (www.adobe.com/go/devicecentral)
• Downloading Flash Lite players for developers (www.adobe.com/go/mobileplayers)
• Mobile authoring (www.adobe.com/go/mobileauthoring)

Bookmark these links and share them whenever possible.