As many of you heard in my recent e-seminar we have decided to stop work on the Distributable Player beta.

We didn’t take this decision lightly, and as many of you know this product has been my focus for a long time, so I’m a little sad to see it go. However in light of our new strategic direction here at Adobe, it is time to focus all of our attention on the goals of Open Screen Project, specifically with Flash Player 10.1.

The goals of the product were to:

• Enable the distribution of Flash Lite 3.1
• To open up opportunities for application distribution on S60/WM devices
• Provide a consistent platform for development as we work on Flash Player 10.1 and AIR

The solution was a success in many ways, we have had 135,000 downloads of the Mobile Packager to date. We learned a huge amount in building a complex tool and provided a footing for many of you to create mobile applications for the first time. My personal measure of success was that tens of thousands of developers and designers who were able to target mobile platforms for the first time, not to mention the great applications that were created.

Admittedly in some ways the product didn’t quite hit the mark, and we learned a lot from that. In fact the reasons that led us to create the Distributable Player now play a core part of the plan with our Open Screen Project partners. We are each playing a part to drive consistency, establish update mechanisms and enable wide distribution. Nokia has already established an OTA update mechanism for the Flash runtime, which is a great example of their commitment to the community.

Finally, some of you have asked for some guidance on applications that you had planned to launch. As you would expect we don’t intend to simply shut down the delivery mechanisms, so don’t panic.

What will happen to the product now:

• The server solution for device detection and player downloads will remain in place for 1 year (active until November 30, 2011).
• The Mobile Packager tool will be removed from Adobe Labs
• Our Labs pages and discussion Forum will be removed
• I will of course be working with some of you to enable your upcoming launches as planned

What Next?
Over the summer I have been learning all about Actionscript 3, creating my first AIR application with Flash Builder. My first application was to create a desktop interface for SWFPack.com , and a Mobile phone projector based on demofone.com for my presentations.

Additionally in the past few weeks I have also began work on my first iPhone application built with Flash Professional CS5. It’s an application that I hope we can all contribute to in time with video tutorials called “Flash Training for devices”. The first set of videos will come from Dale’s fantastic video series over on vimeo.com/adobeflashlite .

As we move through the quiet holiday period I would suggest investing in some AS3 books and training, or catching up on the Flash Player 10, Flex and AIR content available at tv.adobe.com . Investing your time now is a great way to ensure that you’re not left behind.

My best advice is the same that I follow myself:

• Set yourself achievable goals for learning this new language
• Create a sample project, one that you can get excited about and share
• Keep communicating your thoughts and experiences, we can all learn together

Here are some sneaks from my sample app to get you warmed up: