Exciting times for Flash developers in Taiwan and soon abroad. Chunghwa Telecom, the largest mobile operator in Taiwan, has just launched "Channel Me" which is their branded version of Adobe's Flash Cast solution. Most all of the text and channel content is localized in Traditional Chinese and providers users there with information that's relevant to them. This service launched yesterday with quite a few channels supporting over 20 handsets on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile, including the brand new HTC Touch Diamond.

You can visit the Channel Me site to get idea of the user experience for the service and samples of some of the channels.

Currently Flash developers in Taiwan can start creating additional channels for the Channel Me service and in the future their may be an opportunity for developers outside of Taiwan to create channels for those subscribers. Once we have more information about this we'll be sharing it with the community.

I'm waiting for a colleague to bring back one of the Channel Me devices so I can post a video of the actual UI and service. In the mean time here is a photo from the launch event.


One of the cool things that Chunghwa Telecom did during the launch event to promote the service was to bring in the top 10 contestants from this year's Taiwan Idol (similar to American Idol) to show the Channel Me service on their HTC Touch handsets.

So to summarize, Flash Cast is live:

• with NTT DoCoMo in Japan (iChannel)
• with Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan (Channel Me)
• and soon with Verizon Wireless in the US (Dashboard)

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.

Good news for those of you who have been following our Flash Cast announcements around Verizon Wireless - you can now start participating!

We're really excited about being able to provide more details to developers around creating channels for Dashboard - which is the current name of their implementation of Flash Cast.

There is now more details available about Dashboard, the tools for creating and testing channel content and how to contact Verizon Wireless about getting started. Once a developer is accepted by Verizon Wireless to participate in the Dashboard program, they will then receive access to our new tools, testing server, documentation, discussion forums and other information.

Verizon Wireless has updated their developer center TheZON with a new section for Dashboard and we've also updated our Flash for Verizon Wireless developer page on our site with additional details.

So you probably have some initial questions:

• When will Dashboard be available? Mid-2008.
• What devices will it be available on? We can't share that information at this time but we're recommending the LG VX8700 handset as a reference device for development and testing based on the hardware and screen characteristics.
  
• What's a channel? It's the rich experience that brands and developers create which renders a data feed. You can think of them as being similar to widgets but channels are more expressive. Dashboard users will be able to have multiple channels available to them on their handset.
  
• What do I need to do to get started? Read the information on the Verizon Wireless Dashboard Developer site and contact Verizon Wireless to apply to be a channel developer.
  
• What is Mobile AppBuilder? Mobile AppBuilder is is the new PC-based tool created to streamline the workflow for channel development. Use Flash CS3 Professional, together with Mobile AppBuilder, to create, assemble, test, and preview channels locally on your desktop. Mobile AppBuilder includes a Flash Cast client emulator that runs on your desktop as well as Flash Cast device profiles.
• What is the difference between Flash Cast and Flash Lite? Flash Cast is a client+server solution and Flash Lite is a client only solution.

Here are some links to help you get started and to provide more information:

• Verizon Wireless Dashboard Developer Site
• Dashboard Flash Cast Content Guide
• Dashboard FAQs
• Overall Process for Developing a Channel
  

If you have any questions please email me or leave a comment.

If you haven't already heard we've announced our upcoming MAX 2007 conferences - which are Adobe's annual designer/developer conferences. This year we'll have three conferences around the world to allow creative professionals, students and hobbyists to hear from speakers who are very knowledgeable with a wide range of topics including Flash Lite, Flash Cast, AIR, Flex, Flash, Dreamweaver, Premiere, etc... This year will be my 6 MAX US conference and I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone who is interested in developing mobile Flash applications/content as well as hearing from other speakers on what cool things they've been working on.

Here are the dates and locations of the MAX conferences:

• MAX US: Sept 30 - Oct 3 (Chicago)
• MAX Europe: Oct 15 - 18 (Barcelona, Spain)
• MAX Japan: Nov 1 - 2 (Tokyo, Japan)

For the US conference we currently have the following mobile related sessions scheduled:

• 20 Tricks to Improve Flash Lite Development
• Creating Flash Cast Channels for Verizon Wireless
  
• Creating Flash Lite Multiplayer Games
• Designing for Mobile Experiences
  
• Flash Lite 3 Development
• From Desktop to Mobile: New Revenue Opportunities
• Introduction to Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium
  
• Introduction to Flash Lite 2

As the US conference date gets closer we'll be finalizing these sessions and speakers. For the other two regional MAX conferences we're putting together a list of topics to cover but if you plan on attending these and would like to see a specific mobile topic covered, please let me know by leaving a comment here.

Today Wednesday March 28, from the CTIA Wireless show in Orlando, Adobe Systems Incorporated has named Verizon Wireless its exclusive wireless carrier launch partner in North America for delivering all new Adobe mobile applications. Additionally, Adobe announced that Verizon Wireless will be the first wireless operator in North America to bring Adobe FlashCast based data services to mobile subscribers, in the second half of 2007.

You can read the full press release here.

This is very exciting news and it's now the second implementation of Adobe's Mobile Technologies by Verizon Wireless. First it was Verizon Wireless supporting Flash Lite applications and content via their Get It Now content catalog back at MAX 2006 in October, and now today Verizon Wireless has announced that they will be using our Flash Cast technologies to bring engaging mobile experiences to their subscribers. This is in addition to some of their handsets like the Chocolate phone (LG VX8500) and others to come to market this year that have Flash Lite pre-installed and implemented by the OEMs as the UI.

So in terms of FlashCast we now have support by an operator in each main geography:
Verizon Wireless (North America)
NTT DoCoMo (Japan)
Chunghwa Telecom (APAC)
Telenor Sweden (Europe)

Over the next several months we'll have more details to share, but in the mean time if you have any questions please post them here and I'll do my best to answer them.

Today Adobe Systems Incorporated and Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan) today announced a partnership to deliver Adobe FlashCast technology to more than eight million subscribers in Taiwan. The new offering is expected to deliver rich data services across the Chunghwa Telecom network before the end of 2007.

You can read the full press release here.

It's great to see another operator outside of Japan adopt FlashCast technologies from Adobe and to ultimately allow their subscribers to more easily and quickly discover various types of information that they're interested in either as basic or premium channels. We'll have more information to share about Chunghwa Telecom's FlashCast implementation later this year.

If you have any questions you can post them here and I'll answer them as best as I can.

Today Adobe announced that NTT DoCoMo’s i-channel news and information service, powered by Adobe FlashCast technology, has surpassed 10 Million subscribers in Japan. NTT DoCoMo hit this important milestone just 18 months after the launch. The rapidly expanding data service is delivered through 25 channels to almost 20 percent of all NTT DoCoMo customers.

You can read more about in the press release.

This is really great news and shows how the user experience can play such a significant impact for consumer discoverability of data services.

Here's some more good news for today:

"Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced that more than two million mobile phone subscribers have signed up for NTT DoCoMo's i-channel news and information delivery service since it was launched in Japan last September. i-channel is powered by Macromedia FlashCast technology from Adobe, a client-server solution that effectively delivers rich data experiences to mobile devices."

2 million+ subscribers in about 7 months for a new mobile data service is incredible and it's an indication of the ease of discoverability of the i-channel service by consumers in Japan.