What’s being announced?

• Flash shipped on 1 Billion devices (cummulative): Flash Lite shipped on 40% of all new handsets in 2008
• Public beta of the Distributable Player solution – the ability to distribute mobile apps with the latest Flash Lite runtime
• Launch of m.adobe.com with leading content providers
• The Flash Lite Developer Challenge – a contest with cash prizes totaling $100,000
• The Open Screen Project Fund – a $10 Million market development fund open to developers worldwide
• Palm joins the Open Screen Project – “Palm joins the Open Screen Project and intends to ship Flash 10 on devices”

What is the Distributable Player? For the first time, developers can:
·        Target the latest version of the Flash Lite player, leveraging the content-triggered download model people are familiar with on the web, but for standalone applications.
·        Reach millions of open OS smart phones through direct-to-consumer distribution, new off-deck aggregator partners (GetJar, Thumbplay & Zed), or existing distribution channels.  OTA is available in US, UK, India, Spain and Italy with more following quickly, anyone can download the player from Adobe Labs if OTA is not available.

Developers get 67% (Thumbplay) and 70% (Zed) of net revenues when selling their applications, an typical application sells for $4.  Applications distributed by GetJar are free and can be supported by advertising, useful for projects where free/wide distribution is required.

Call to action:
·        Click here <http://www.adobe.com/go/distribute>  to get started creating, packaging and distributing Flash Lite 3.1 apps today!
·        Submit apps to the Flash Lite Developer Challenge <http://www.flashlitedeveloperchallenge.com/>  contest for a chance to win cash prizes, software and distribution deals with leading aggregators

What is the Open Screen Project Fund?
The Open Screen Project Fund is a $10 million market development fund that will provide grants to developers in order to accelerate the creation of apps, content and services that leverage the Adobe Flash Platform and run across mobile, desktop and consumer electronics devices.

Developers around the world are invited to submit their ideas. Proposals will be reviewed by an Open Screen Project Fund steering committee. We are seeking applications that work across devices, and showcase the key features of Flash Lite, Flash Player and AIR. While the apps do not have to run across all three screens (desktop, mobile and CE devices), at a minimum a mobile version is required. Additional criteria can be found in the FAQ on the website.

Call to action:
·        Apply today in order to receive funding

Today the online magazine e-week published an interview with Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch.  In that he provided details about Creative Suite 4, Adobe’s work in the Open Source community, the Open Screen Project and our goals for multi-screen content.

“And that’s what we’ve done with  AIR on PCs. AIR is a way to deploy an application across OSes. And that’s  going great. We’ve had 35 million installs of AIR and we’re hoping for 100  million by the end of the year. Looks like we’re going to make it. And we’re  working to bring that same technology to mobile devices. And I think that  might be a trend toward a “mobile first” experience, which is really a  reversal of how people create applications.

Right now they create largely  using large screens and PCs and think about creating stuff that will be  displayed on large screens and PCs. And I think that need to change. In the  conception of creating that content we need to think about how that will work  in the constraints of a mobile device and then maybe how it will work on the  big screen. That’s a reversal of how people are thinking and I think it will  take a few years for it to happen.

But at Max that’s one of the things we will  encourage people to think about — to shift more to this mobile way of  thinking and then consider PCs. And that will be a change to our tooling over  time. Already we’re starting to do that with things like Device Central in  Creative Suite 4 where you can visualize your work across devices. But there’s going to be a lot more to do there.”

As you can see this is a clear signal of our intent for multiple screens including mobile phones, consumer electronics, set-top boxes and of course desktop computers.  Innovation for web has, and always will be, the primary driver behind all that we do for the community.

If you haven’t already signed up for MAX and the mobile sessions then now is the time to get on board.

See the badge on the right hand side —>

Adobe MAX 2008 is only a few months away and I hope that all of you find the time to attend in San Francisco, Milan or Tokyo.

As part of the event we host the MAX Awards ceremony and I’d like to extend the opportunity for you to nominate individuals or companies.  There is a specific category for “Mobility and Devices” and you can also select a region.

Nominations can be for applications, services and experiences that you have seen over the past year.

If you haven’t been to the MAX 2008 site, be sure to have a look at the fantastic sessions.

Today Qualcomm and Adobe announced that the BREW Mobile Platform will be integrated with Adobe Flash technology and new platform features. You can read the full press release here. This is fantastic news for both BREW and Flash developers particularly in the large BREW market in the US.

In Europe specifically BREW is available on UIOne based handsets, notably the Skype phone on the 3 network in the UK. So  the platform is largely based in the US and Asia though the use of Flash technology on millions of new devices can only strengthen the adoption across platforms and screens.

For developers this means that there are opportunities to leverage this as a data point when dealing with your customers, and to reach into the US market in the future.  Naturally there will be aggregators and other friendly developers that can help you to deliver content to BREW.

What a challenge, “iPhone has raised the bar, now lets see what the Flash community see what they can do,” said Andrew Gilbert from Qualcomm.”

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 their 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
• Chunghwa 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 license 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

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. In short, learning how to build mobile experiences now will be your differentiator.

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 CS3 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 2010 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. These are cummulative shipments, not the devices in peoples pockets.

Next steps
If you’re a desktop 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. Our take on it is that in the future you’ll be building your mobile applications first, and adding elements for the desktop, 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.

Nokia are now shipping Flash Lite 3.0 on 9 S60 devices through a mixture of mandatory and firmware upgrades, and have released the first S40 device with Flash Lite 3.0, the 6300i.

Flash Lite 3.1 is a dot release because we are simply altering a few features, some new and some enhancements to ensure that web browsing is as good as possible. Here is a feature snapshot:

• Improved Web Browsing, 91% of top 500 internet sites.
• Flash 9 (AS2 only) support
• Local Connection / HTML Text / GetURL_target / CSS support / WMode
• H.264 support* / Improved video support (smoothing, seek)
• Improved memory handling for images
• MP3 Streaming support**
• Linux Reference port

*Requires OEM porting to chipset.

**Requires licensing from MPEG.

Flash Lite 3.1 has already been released to our partners and you should expect to see it on devices by the end of the year.

If you have any questions then feel free to leave them in the comment field.