Flash Lite 2 Content Development Kit
Have been spending some time with the recently released Flash Lite 2 Upgrade for Flash Professional 8 and the associated Flash Lite 2 Content Development Kit. Here are some initial takes.
First, on the upside. Flash Lite 2.0 is nice step forward in the tools available for the development and distribution of content for mobile devices. The addition of some Actionscript 2.0 capability is reason enough to cheer. The CDK may be a little lean, but I found what is there to be laid out well and was more than enough to get me started. If you can make your way around Flash for building web applications or developing web content, the transition to Flash Lite 2.0 is easily within reach.
Now for some downside. If you go through the supported devices list one can’t help but notice that a relative lack of compatible mobile devices and carriers still lingers for Flash Lite developers focused on the US market. Nokia and Sony do offer Flash Lite 1.1 and 2.0 supported devices for GSM based US operators, but shouldn’t Flash be farther along on the mobile platform by now?
Well, a little good news was released this week that could mean some optimism on this front may be in order. Adobe and Verizon Wireless announced a new agreement to have the Flash Lite player pre-installed on new Verizon devices. Hopefully this will spur Sprint and Cingular to follow along quickly.
Have you ever wondered why adoption of the Flash player for mobile devices has been so slow in the US? I got a hint on a possible answer during the Q&A time at one of the mobile application development panels at SXSW. During an exchange it was implied that one possible reason for the slow adoption of Flash Lite on the mobile platform is an apparent desire by Macromedia/Adobe to negotiate a license fee to pre install the Flash Lite player on mobile devices. Google the topic and it appears I was probably slow in developing an awareness for this line of thought. Others have been pushing for a solution to this for quite a while.
Hmm. Imagine how the desktop development tools market might look today if back in the 90’s Macromedia had tried to charge a license fee to install the Flash plug-in on the desktop platform. Would Flash be anywhere close to having the dominant installed base that it does on the desktop platform? Or would we have been spared all those spinning, flaming Flash corporate logo animations and Flash intros? (of which I am guilty of building my fair share of as well)
I’m always curious about the desire to tinker with a business model just because the distribution platform changes. Hopefully this week’s announcement signals that this impasse between the tool maker and the device maker has been bridged and that more announcements are soon to come.
Bottomline is that Flash Lite 2.0 is worth a look for Flash developers with long term plans to build, aggregate or repurpose content for distribution on the mobile platform.
Flash Lite ecosystem is about to kick-start
Stay tuned !