Today we’re announcing that Microsoft has licensed Flash Lite 3 and Reader LE for future Windows Mobile based devices and adds another supported platform for Flash developers to reach consumers. Flash Lite 3 will be pre-installed in the Internet Explorer Mobile browser on future Windows Mobile devices and will allow consumers with these devices to enjoy the same web experiences anywhere they are. In addition to Flash Lite, Reader LE will be pre-installed to allow consumers to open and view PDF documents while they’re away from their computer, increasing productivity and enhancing the enterprise workflow. Adding the Windows Mobile platform is important for our developers to expand the reach of their applications to more consumers.

Over the past few weeks there have been several announcements by other companies regarding their mobile solutions or initiatives and I’m glad I can now finally talk about this deal with Microsoft. Well I thought I’d take the time to provide more details around some of the commonly asked questions you may have to help put some context to things within the public domain.

Why did it take so long
Ever since we announced Flash Lite 3 back in October, there have been a lot (and I mean a lot) of requests from consumers and developers about not being able to view their favorite sites using the Internet Explorer Mobile browser on their Windows Mobile devices. Like any licensing deal they take time and we’ve been working with Microsoft for several months on this deal and we’re very excited about Windows Mobile consumers being able to experience the full web in the future.

How many Windows Mobile devices
If you take a look at recent information for Windows Mobile devices (11 million shipped in 2007 and 20 million expected in 2008) you can see a trend here. Also according to Strategy Analytics, in 2007 1/3 of Windows Mobile devices shipped in North America (33%) with other regions representing other values: Western Europe (29%), APAC (20%) and the rest of the world (18%). You’ll have to look to Microsoft to provide guidance on future handset shipments but you can visit their site to get a sense of the range of devices they have in market today. One thing to note is this deal is different than other licensing agreements we have with our OEMs. Because the license agreement is with Microsoft, it will be part of their Windows Mobile OS in the future meaning any OEM that will ship a Windows Mobile device will have Flash Lite 3 pre-installed. Today these OEMs include HTC, iMate, Samsung and others.

Will my current Windows Mobile device support Flash Lite
The signed agreement with Microsoft is for future Windows Mobile devices and you will have to ask them if they plan on providing any updates to existing Windows Mobile device owners to add Flash Lite support to their Internet Explorer browser. Or you can contact the device manufacturer to see if they have any information to share.

Browser support only for Windows Mobile
This licensing agreement is only for a browser plug-in which means Flash Lite content will only be supported inside the Internet Explorer Mobile browser. This means no standalone content like games or applications or personalization content like animated wallpapers and screensavers that other platforms support today. This means that consumers will discover your Flash Lite content by going to a URL using their Internet Explorer Mobile browser – not by downloading an application or a CAB file (which is a native packaging extension for Windows Mobile devices). From a content creation standpoint there are 3 main screen sizes for Windows Mobile devices: 240x240, 240x320 and 320x240 – but there are other screen sizes as well. Some of these devices are touch screen based and it’s good to know that Flash Lite 3 does support touch screen events. We’ll be publishing a technical article in the future that describes how to embed your Flash Lite content inside an HTML page so it renders correctly and provides a great experience.

Windows Mobile makes 9 mobile platforms
Supporting as many non-PC devices and mobile platforms with our Flash technology is important and with today’s announcement the number of mobile platforms increases to 9. Today there are over half a billion devices that have shipped with our Flash technology pre-installed, and we fully expect to be on over 1 billion devices by 2010 – not bad considering the first non-PC device with Flash technology (Flash Lite 1.0) shipped in Japan in February 2003.

Here’s a breakdown of what you can do on these platforms:

Flash Lite and Silverlight on Windows Mobile
Yep you bet. If you take a look at the PC space, Flash is a key part of the rich web experience and Microsoft is competing in the same space with their Silverlight browser plug-in. It’s only natural that they would look to port their Silverlight plug-in for mobile devices and Windows Mobile is an obvious first platform for them to support. If you take a look at our strategy it’s to provide a consistent platform for media brands, companies and developers to extend their PC-based web experiences to mobile devices. Obviously Flash Lite is not the same as the desktop Flash player but we’re moving towards a future where our Flash client will allow developers to focus on creating the applications and not worrying about the platform or device.

Today there are several mobile devices that support our Flash/Flash Lite technology in the browser and we expect the number of these devices to continue to increase. Two weeks ago Microsoft announced Silverlight would be coming to Windows Mobile and Nokia devices in the future and I think it’s a good thing for developers – competition drives innovation. I had some good conversations with some of the Microsoft Mobile team members and will be posting my thoughts in another post, mainly about the differences between Silverlight 1.0 and Flash Lite 3 for mobile devices.


So if you’re reading this part now you probably have a few questions, so go ahead and leave them here and I’ll provide answers as best as I can. If you want to get started with learning more about developing Flash Lite content for devices you can visit our getting started section of our mobile and devices developer center.

Today at CES in Las Vegas, Sony Electronics announced their new Sony mylo communicator device, also known as the Sony mylo 2. The mylo 2 is a WiFi based device that allows users to browse the web with Flash support, check their Facebook accounts, use Skype, take photos and more. It has a 3.5", 800x480 pixel resolution touch screen and a slide out QWERTY keyboard so viewing content and web pages should be a better experience then smaller screen devices.

The mylo 2 has an enhanced web browser with Flash Lite 3 integrated to allow users to view YouTube videos and other rich, interactive web sites that require Flash support. Since Flash Lite 3 only supports SWF content that's published as version 8 or lower, web sites that are published as Flash 9 such as Flex applications will not be displayed.

This is the second consumer electronic device to ship with Flash Lite 3, the first was the Chumby back in October 2007.


It will start selling later this month for $300 and will be available in black or white. I'm still waiting for my demo unit and once I receive it I'll post more details including how Flash Lite 3 is implemented as a web browser plug-in. We will also be creating a new dedicated Flash Lite developer page for the Sony mylo 2 on our developer center within a few weeks.

Post any questions you have and I'll try to answer them.

There's a new Flash Lite 3 article "Creating a video e-card application for mobile devices" available on the Adobe mobile and devices developer center.

The article outlines the process of building a basic Flash Lite 3 application that allows users to send Flash Video (FLV) clips with custom messages to other mobile device users. The recipients will be able to view the e-card greetings using a mobile client on their handsets. Sample files and a detailed walk through of the steps to build the application are provided.

Thanks to Samir for spending his time to share his ideas and knowledge of Flash Lite with the broader developer community.

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.

As I mentioned in my last post we're planning on sending out the Flash Lite 3 developer edition to initial requesters by the end of November if not sooner. Good news it's sooner. This evening we've started to send out the installers to the first group of developers and some of them have mentioned receiving them.

So if you were one of the first group of developers who submitted your IMEI # before 16 Oct then you should receive your installer within the next few days. The second group of developers will receive theirs in the next few weeks, hopefully sooner.

Do me a favor and leave a comment if you've received your Flash Lite 3 developer edition and let us know what your initial impressions are.

Thanks to everyone who has sent in their IMEI # requesting the Flash Lite 3 developer edition. Because there has been a huge demand for the Flash Lite 3 developer edition it is taking us longer than expected to get everyone’s IMEIs included and certified. This delay is unfortunate but because of this delay we have had time to add improvements to the Flash Lite 3 developer edition including faster FLV playback so you’ll notice an even better experience when playing back that type of content on supported devices.

Supported devices that developers can use for testing are any Nokia Symiban S60 3rd edition or newer based device. For example our reference device for testing and doing demos is the Nokia N95.

The Flash Lite 3 developer edition is only a standalone player and will allow developers to test and play back SWF files that are published as Flash Lite 3. Note, the Flash Lite 3 developer edition does not support the mobile phone web browser as a plug-in or other content types such as wallpapers and screensavers. It is meant only for developers, not for consumers to download. The first mobile phones that will start shipping with Flash Lite 3 pre-installed will be Nokia devices in Q1 2008.

Our new tentative date for having the player sent out to requesters is by the end of November if not sooner. Again we’re sorry for the delay and appreciate in your patience but believe the wait will be worth it.

Just a quick reminder that I'll be hosting our monthly Flash Lite webinar tomorrow morning (9am PDT, 24 Oct) and will be talking about Developing Flash Lite 3 applications for Nokia Devices. You can still register here and if you're unable to attend don't worry - this webinar will be recorded and made available next week on the Adobe mobile and devices developer center.

Less than one week away and I'm really excited to be presenting my session on Flash Lite 3. Lots of very cool things to show besides support for Flash Video which we've already mentioned earlier this year. I will be giving my session twice:

• Monday, October 1 (3:15-4:15pm)
• Tuesday, October 2 (4:00-5:00pm)

Don't forget to sign-up for the other mobile sessions - lots of good topics being presented by some of the best mobile Flash developers today.

Hopefully you've already registered for MAX North America because as of yesterday it's now sold out. This is awesome and the first time it's happened, however if you didn't already register or were planning on registering on site then you won't be able to attend. Don't worry though because I will be posting my presentation around mid-October and I believe the MAX events team is looking at ways to film most of the MAX sessions and to make them available for viewing.