Adobe’s Open Screen Project: Making Flash the Center of Mobile Internet
by Muhammad on May 8, 2008
in Uncategorized
Adobe is really eager to get at the core of mobile internet and at the same time grab a big piece of the pie of the mobile internet device arena. The mobile internet sector is extremely fragmented with Apple (using XCode), Mozilla and Microsoft’s Silverlight playing in the same field with different platforms and frameworks.
The question comes in here as to whether Adobe’s Flash/Air combo will stand up to the challenge and triumph. The success of Apple’s iPhone in terms of increasing the penetration of mobile internet usage has prompted Adobe to take a serious look at it’s Flash model in bring in the major changes with it’s Open Screen Project. Currently, only 30% of mobile internet devices support flash, compared with 98% of desktops. Since the current iPhone doesn’t support flash, with this initiative we could see Flash included in the next iPhone release.
The main points which Adobe is driving with the project are…
* Removing restrictions on use of the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications
* Publishing the device porting layer APIs for Adobe Flash Player
* Publishing the Adobe Flash® Cast™ protocol and the AMF protocol for robust data services
* Removing licensing fees – making next major releases of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices free
The project is backed by major technology companies such as ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics Inc., Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Verizon Wireless.
Even with all this in mind the main question still remains… Will this end fragmentation of this market or will it merely liven up the competition?
