It was announced today that Adobe has inked a deal with Verizon Wireless, the second largest wireless carrier in the US, to Flash playback capabilities into Verizon Wireless phones.

This marks the first commercial deployment of Flash Lite in the US market.

More from Reuters.

I’m sure this has already been thoroughly reported, but while browsing our online store I just noticed that Flash Lite 2 is posted for sale for US$10.

If you have a compatible phone you can now build mobile Flash content using, among other great features, ActionScript 2.0! Woo-hoo!

I can’t wait to see what the community creates with this.

Get Flash Lite 2 here.

Macromedia’s Developer Relations Manager for Mobile and Devices, Bill Perry, has produced a great Breeze presentation that walks you through the new mobile authoring features in Flash Professional 8.

View it here: http://www.macromedia.com/mobile/special/flashpro8_features/presentation/

[via PSPWorld.com]

“Sony’s developers are considering adding Macromedia Flash support for PSP’s Web browser in the future, as well as expanding Javascript functions. Kawanishi explained they need to determine Flash’s performances on the PSP before coming to a conclusion. Kawanishi said that his team basically has an open stance toward network-related functions, and Flash playback was not intentionally ignored. On the other hand, Kawanishi explained that security issues prompted the team to leave out some Javascript support, such as allowing scripts to access the UMD.”

http://www.pspworld.com/sony-psp/psp/psp-to-get-mouse-keyboard-gps-flash-001311.php

I can neither confim nor deny that this is actually going to happen. It looks like Sony is just expressing their interest in pursuing this option.

Macromedia announced that they will be working with Qualcomm to bring Flash support to Qualcomm’s BREW platform
for mobile devices.

According to Macromedia’s EVP and GM of Mobile and Devices, Al Ramadan, “Delivering Flash content and applications on BREW will help us achieve our mission to provide a solution that supports the development of a new generation of creative, innovative and visually stunning content, communications, and applications.”

The popular BREW platform is currently deployed on a wide variety of handsets around the world and is often used for building advanced applications like high-end games.

From the press release:

San Diego and San Francisco - June 3, 2005 - QUALCOMM Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM) and Macromedia (Nasdaq: MACR) today announced an agreement under which Macromedia may distribute Flash-based mobile applications developed using the BREW solution. With more than 98 percent penetration on Internet-connected desktop computers and more than 30 million Flash-enabled devices shipping, Flash enables the delivery of rich content, applications, and communications across all platforms. In addition to the agreement, Macromedia has signed on as an Elite member of the BREW Alliance Program.

This is great news. Now everyone with a compatible phone can start building, testing, and showing off great Flash Lite content. They can also post it to the new Flash Lite Exchange to be shared with others.

[via Bill Perry]

For $10 you can now purchase the Flash Lite 1.1 player for your handset via the Macromedia online store. If you’re a developer interested in creating and developing Flash Lite content or just want to view Flash Lite content, it’s now possible to get a player for your handset or handsets.

Supported handsets now include the following:
Nokia 3600, 3620, 3650, 3660, 6260, 6600, 6620, 6630, 6670, 7610, N-Gage, N-Gage QD
Sendo X
Siemens SX1
Sony Ericsson P900, P910

When purchasing the player you’ll have to select your handset from a drop-down of currently supported handsets and provide the IMEI number (serial number) for your handset. You can press *#06# on your handset to get the IMEI number, which is a 15-digit numeric string.

Each Flash Lite player is generated for a unique IMEI number so it will only work on the handset that has the same IMEI number as the Flash Lite player.

If you have more questions you can check out the new Flash Lite FAQ page.

I know this has already been posted elsewhere, but it’s such big news that I have to add to the excitement.

In this recent press release Macromedia and Nokia announced:

…a licensing agreement that will integrate Macromedia Flash technology into Series 60 Platform. Series 60 becomes a reference platform for Macromedia’s mobile Flash technology, and Macromedia will implement new versions of its mobile Flash technology on Series 60. Nokia has also agreed to support Flash in its other software platforms.

This announcement follows an earlier announcement that Macromedia made a similar agreement with mobile phone manufacturer and tech giant Samsung.

It’s clear that Flash has finally made it’s big move as a major player in the mobile space. Now the most distributed rich client on the Internet has crossed the bridge to the mobile world. I’m glad I’ve been spending so much time researching mobile authoring features for Flash lately!

I just found this article at LinuxInsider.com discussing trends in mobile content and that platforms that will support them. It talks about the growth of mobile content aggregators and how the open distribution of content will drive overall growth in the industry.

“The holy grail for any content owner in the mobile content space is to build a direct relationship with consumers, one enabling them, via a branded piece of real estate on a user’s handset, to deliver constantly updated premium content, without having to negotiate with the operators for distribution through their portals.”

The article initially focuses on the Java platform (J2ME), however it goes on to point out the platform’s flaws.

“The appeal of Java is that it’s a ‘write once, run anywhere’ technology. However, this has been anything but true in the mobile space. The extensions and tweaks introduced by operators and handset manufacturers mean applications have to be tested for each different handset out there in the market.”

This is one of the biggest opportunities for the scalable Flash platform.

“Flash technology helped to revolutionize the consumer experience of the Web. Despite initial heavy-handedness, it ushered in an era of rich, user-friendly multimedia content and now promises to do the same for mobile. In fact, many believe that the future for rich mobile content is in Flash rather Java. The advantages of Macromedia’s mobile Flash, Flash Lite, are simple.

It provides a richer environment, its use of vector graphics means it can more easily scale to different handsets, and its huge developer community offers a wide range of content and applications. The technology has already had success in Japan, with most of NTT DoCoMo’s phones now running a Flash-based user interface.”

Read the rest of the article here.

In preparation for my upcoming session at MXDU about Flash on mobile and devices, I ordered the new Nokia 6630 (unlocked version). This phone is not yet provided by any of the US carriers, but I assume it will be soon. As is the case with most new, cutting edge phones, I was able to purchase the unlocked version of the phone off the web (at a premium price). I got mine here.

Accoring to our mobile and devices team, this is one of the best phones to have if you’re a Flash Lite developer. It also has some nice features like a 1.3 MegaPixel camera, bluetooth, a bunch of rich media features, EDGE network compatibility (for next-generation high speed data services), and a bunch more.

After getting the phone to synch with my Thinkpad via Bluetooth I installed the Flash Lite 1.1 player. I then uploaded some sample apps that Macromedia mobile evangelist, Bill Perry, gave me.

Needless to say, I’ve spent most of the weekend building apps for my phone. It’s like discovering the world of Flash all over again. I’m finding myself figuring out all of the limitations of the device, learning the mobile-specific APIs added to the Flash Lite player, and trying to remember ActionScript syntax and APIs from Flash Player 4 - which Flash Lite 1.x is based on.

I’m really happy that I’ve been diving into Flash Lite development because I’m finding all kinds of opportunities to make the authoring experience better - which is one of my top priorities for the next release of Flash, code-named “8ball”. I’ve been doing a lot of research in this area over the last few months and I’m getting more and more excited every day. We’re making great strides in making Flash the common rich client run-time across all mobile phones and devices.

*Note: The Flash Lite player is not yet included with the Nokia 6630 but may be provided by some wireless carriers throughout the world. If you’d like to get the Flash Lite player for your phone and start building Flash Lite applications, visit the Flash Lite developer center and join our developer program.