Flash Lite-essentially a stripped-down, mobile version of the popular Flash Player for computers-has quietly gained impressive ground since NTT DoCoMo Inc. introduced handsets enabled with the software in 2003. DoCoMo recently touted surpassing the 2 million subscriber mark to its i-channel service, which uses Flash Lite.
The platform has been embraced by handset manufacturers and software developers in Japan and South Korea, and the number of Flash Lite-enabled phones is expected to explode from 38 million units last year to 216 million devices by 2010, according to a recent report from Strategy Analytics.
“Over 100 handsets that support Flash Lite are already available or pre-announced,” said Stephen Entwistle, vice president of Strategy Analytics’ Strategic Technologies Practice. “The top seven handset manufacturers and several others have signed up with Adobe to license Flash Lite on their handsets.”
Adobe Systems Inc. acquired Flash with last year’s $3.4 billion acquisition of Macromedia, and the company is aggressively working to deploy the technology outside Asia. The company is teaming with Verizon Wireless to bring Flash Lite to U.S. subscribers, although the companies haven’t disclosed potential launch dates.
Like its PC-based counterpart, Flash Lite has drawn raves for its ability to deliver a compelling user interface as well as audio and video content. But analysts and software developers say the most promising quality about Flash Lite is far less visible. The platform is far simpler than some other wireless platforms for developers to write to, many developers say, allowing them to cut costs and speed time-to-market for new mobile applications.
Flash Lite “shows lots and lots of promise,” Gina Centoni, senior vice president of Hands-On Mobile, said at the Electronic Entertainment Expo last month. “It gives us a lot of control, a lot of flexibility in how we implement designs.”
A former Macromedia executive, Centoni said Flash Lite’s appeal is that it provides a uniform foundation for developing and deploying applications across a variety of devices. The platform can be used with mass-market mobile platforms BREW and Java as well as the Symbian operating system.
“It gives us an opportunity to write to that layer rather than all of the levels of Java and BREW,” she continued. “It reduces our development time dramatically.”
The technology also enables over-the-air content management, allowing carriers to modify content on devices in the field, and can minimize the need to port content and applications across different types of devices.
Flash also has the benefit of a community of more than 1.3 million developers. Expanding the technology to wireless phones could result in a flood of applications that have been “mobilized” from the desktop to the small screen.
“With only minor adjustments to accommodate the unique specifications and needs of handsets, developers already skilled in Flash can easily bring their skills and expertise to the mobile space,” according to an IDC white paper sponsored by Macromedia.
Some mobile marketing companies see the technology as an eye-grabbing advertising tool-something Java and WAP have failed to become. WAP’s shortcomings have been well documented, while J2ME-the mobile version of Java-has a notoriously long development cycle.
Of course, not every developer is a Flash fan, and other new technologies, including PYTHON and SavaJe, have gained developers’ attention as attractive foundations upon which to build applications. But many believe no other platform in mobile today combines the flexibility, user interface and developer community that Adobe’s Flash Lite brings to the table.
“It allows you to write once and test anywhere,” said Stuart Donovan, chief technology officer for Induslogic Inc., a developer of outsourced software products. “And our industry, more than any other, is about scale.”
