Mobile Marketing Blog by Punchkick Interactive

This is very exciting news as I can’t think of a single thing that could more quickly expand the reach of Flash Lite.

Sony Ericsson announced today at its Developer World conference plans for a new technology that bridges Adobe Flash Lite and Java ME development platforms.

The technology, called Project Capuchin, allows Java ME (formerly known as J2ME) applications to use Flash Lite as the front-end interface for mobile phone applications.

“In using Flash, you typically can’t access properties of the phone. But with Capuchin, you can get at information and applications in the phone and use that info with the Flash display,” said Christopher David, director of long-term platform planning at Sony Ericsson.

The Java ME/Flash Lite connection will be a two-way street, so both can invoke the other, according to Ulf Wretling, director of Sony Ericsson Developer World. But most importantly, Flash content is packaged as a Java JAR file for use on Java ME-compatible mobile phones.

Read the full article on InternetNews.com

We are excited to announce that Mobile Ocean, a Flash Lite screensaver that we designed and developed, has been selected for the launch of Adobe’s new Flash Mobile Gallery within Adobe.com.

Hopefully, it will be the first of many featured items for Punchkick Interactive on Adobe.com. The Punchkick Interactive Mobile Ocean screensaver can be viewed within our company Web site on our Flash Lite Screensavers and Wallpapers page or purchased from Handango.com.

Learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s mobile screensaver design capabilities.

Adobe’s CEO, Shantanu Narayen, said Tuesday that Adobe has officially started development of a Flash player suitable for use on Apple’s iPhone and hopes to finish development by June.

Narayen made the comments during a conference call with investors, explaining that Apple’s recent release of an iPhone software developers kit (SDK) has afforded his company the necessary tools to finally begin work an iPhone version of Flash Player.

“We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone,” he said. “We have evaluated (the software developer tools) and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves.”

Adobe hopes to deliver their missing product via Apple’s new App Store, set to open in June alongside the release of iPhone software version 2.0.

So much for Jobs’ comments about the iPhone not being able to support Flash because of a limitation with the Flash player. It seems ridiculous that Apple’s position is a limitation in the Flash Player given that the Flash Player works perfectly on the Nokia 810, countless other portable devices, the Skyfire browser, Pocket IE, and Opera Mobile 9.5. I am very happy to hear about Adobe’s new position on the issue.

Source: Apple Insider, Wall Street Journal

Learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s iPhone software development capabilities.

Yesterday, Bill from Adobe announced that Microsoft has licensed Flash Lite 3 and Reader LE for future Windows Mobile based devices. Flash Lite 3 will be pre-installed in the Internet Explorer Mobile browser on future Windows Mobile devices. Additionally, Reader LE will be pre-installed to allow consumers to open and view PDF documents while they’re away from their computer.

How many Windows Mobile devices
Recent information for Windows Mobile devices states that devices were 11 million shipped in 2007 and 20 million are expected in 2008. Also, according to Strategy Analytics, in 2007 1/3 of Windows Mobile devices shipped in North America (33%) with other regions representing other values: Western Europe (29%), APAC (20%) and the rest of the world (18%). Visit Microsoft to provide guidance on future handset shipments but you can visit their site to get a sense of the range of devices they have in market today. This deal is different than other licensing agreements Adobe has with OEMs. Because the license agreement is with Microsoft, it will be part of their Windows Mobile OS in the future meaning any OEM that will ship a Windows Mobile device will have Flash Lite 3 pre-installed. Today these OEMs include HTC, iMate, Samsung and others.

Ryan and I had the chance to visit Chicago on business last week, and decided to make a long weekend out of it. I love the city of Chicago—there’s plenty of great restaurants, first-class shopping, and friendly people. Ryan’s favorite part of the trip? It wasn’t Shedd Aquarium, the largest indoor aquarium in the world. Nor was it the Brazilian churrascaria Fogo De Chao, where a waitstaff hovers around carrying skewers of perfectly grilled meat, serving all-you-can-eat portions until you are nearly-comatose. It wasn’t even the Water Tower, which could fit all of Northeast Ohio’s retail locations within it.

No folks, it was the Nokia store. That’s right, the Nokia store. Normally calm-and-subdued-Ryan became what I can only describe as “frantic.” There’s nothing quite like sitting in the Nokia store for an hour while a geek runs from phone to phone with a crazed look on his face.

Note: The device in Ryan’s hand is the Nokia N810. When he realized he could pull up the Punchkick Interactive site on it, a wave of joy overtook him. You know you are in trouble when electronics sales-associates look at you funny.

Mark reports that Device Profile #5 is now available for download. This update features the first Flash Lite 3.0 devices available in the market.

An important note: before downloading Update #5, you must first download and install the Flash Lite 3 Update for Device Central CS3 and for Flash CS3 Professional (2 separate updates).

I stumbled across the self-proclaimed “World’s Largest PDA Database,” and as soon as I did I thought, “I can finally get a tally of how many Windows Mobile 2002, 2003 or 5.0 devices are on the market!” In total I found 584 devices. Unfortunately, however, there is no data on the penetration of these devices.

Why is this important? Adobe offers installers for Flash Lite 2.1 for Windows Mobile 5.0, Flash Player 7 for Pocket PC 2003, and the Flash Player 6 for Windows Mobile 2002. Although this does not have the mass market appeal of Verizon Wireless, it is certainly notable.

Flash is pre-installed on:

• 70 Nokia Phones (includes N96)
• 58 Sony Ericsson Phones
• 13 BREW Phones
• 6 Sony CLIE PDAs
• All NTT Docomo handsets
• All KDDI handsets

Flash can be installed on:

• Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC Phone Edition (166)
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC Premium Edition (52)
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC Professional Edition (10)
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone (61)
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition (25)
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Premium Edition (54)
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Professional Edition (6)
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone (11)
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC Phone Edition (57)
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC Premium Edition (41)
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC Professional Edition (4)
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Smartphone (35)
• Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition (20)
• Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Premium Edition (33)
• Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Professional Edition (2)
• Microsoft Smartphone 2002 (7)

Note from Adobe.com:

Note: This version of Flash Player is for the individual use of developers of Pocket PC devices. For more information about Adobe’s Flash Player distribution policy read the FAQ.

When you download the free player, it is provided “as-is”—which means that Adobe will support it only for Windows Mobile 5 and Pocket PC 2003 OS devices through available online resources on our website. If you experience any problems for non-certified devices, you should discuss them with other developers in various forums.

The World’s Largest Handheld Database

As a resident of the United States, I’ve longed for the latest mobile phones from Japan, Korea, and other more “tech-fortunate” countries throughout APAC and Europe. I live in arguably the most powerful industrialized nation on the planet, and yet I still can’t video chat from mobile to mobile like they do in Japan. My free-phone-with-a-two-year-commitment doesn’t come with a QR Code™ reader pre-installed. And, let’s be honest, most entry level phones in the States don’t even include Bluetooth or a 1.3 megapixel camera. Until recently, I was convinced that the U.S. mobile market is behind the times.

So what gives?

Very recently, a number of studies have surfaced leading me to think that maybe, just maybe, things aren’t so bad on this side of the pond. For example, according to the CTIA in Wireless Wave Fall 2007 - A Continental Idea:

[..] earlier this year Merrill Lynch reported that Europeans still pay an average of 19¢ per minute for an average of 153 minutes a month, compared to 5¢ per minute for 834 minutes a month for customers in the U.S. The U.S. is the leader in offering bucket plans, driven by competitive market forces to offer more minutes at a lower effective rate.

3G penetration stats are looking up, too. According to industry analyst Chetan Sharma, President of Chetan Sharma Consulting, “Because of the heavy penetration of the Internet over the desktop, as well as the late advent of 3G in the market, there was not a big driver for mobile Internet until the last one or two years. As 3G penetration has been increasing[,] now we’re up to 15 to 16 percent penetration (in the U.S.).”

M:Metrics — which conducts an on-going survey of thousands of wireless customers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the U.S. — recently found that a slightly higher percentage of U.S. consumers browse wirelessly for news and information than their European counterparts.

The study also shows that the U.S. is at the top in average number of minutes used per month at 832 (Canada, the number two country, averages 429 minutes). The country with the lowest average revenue per minute — a measure of the effective price per voice minute — is again the U.S. at $0.04 USD (South Korea and Mexico are tied for the number two spot at $0.11 USD). And finally, the number of wireless carriers with over one million subscribers is the largest in the U.S. at 10 companies. The country with the next highest number is the England.

My conclusion? Maybe it’s true that the grass is always greener on the other side.

While doing a google search for “flash lite poker,” I found a site listing more than 50 Flash Lite games (most-likely in violation of copyright). If you are a Flash Lite developer, you should check out this list of illegally posted Flash Lite games to see if your content has been stolen or infringed upon. Note: we are NOT promoting this link, rather, we are posting it so that the developers of the games can pursue action against the target Web site.

We edited the link to so that it could not be spidered.
http://www [DOT] kingofwarez [DOT] com [FORWARD SLASH] showthread.php?t=15084

The Game List (as identified by the target site):
-Pong Lite
-whack attack
-road rider
-memik
-monster kick
-payjaz
-locura
-lunar lander
-hiorlo
-dan muffin
-dawn of the fly
-clear the field
-foursight
-dance
-cornrush
-martian mayhem
-bubble shooting
-are you thirsty
-log jam
-fruitball
-crazy taxi
-crazy taxi night
-micro invaders
-penalty shootout
-speedracer
-retch
-snapper game
-pocket slots
-doodle
-lite poker
-casino blackjack
-knights puzzle
-tempiduri
-danze van hellzing
-frisbee fetch
-fruit slot
-fugitive tortoise
-go sushi
-jan ken
-cube - puzzle game
-sokoflash
-snake lite
-presidance
-moby
-iSnake
-cQuenzer
-Tic-tac-toe
-Fruitball
-Darkkiller
-Remember
-Ping
-Blackjack
-Floored
-Dodge

Bill Perry (Mobile evangelist for Adobe) has just posted the Flash Lite install base forecasts for 2008 from the Strategy Analytics Flash-Enabled Handset Forecast from January 4, 2008. The forecast includes the installed base of Flash Lite devices by Region, Country and Version. Bill’s PDF highlighting the 91% Global Growth of Flash Lite in 2007 can be downloaded here.

Worldwide, the totals for 2008 add up to: 461,733,000 mobile devices with Flash Lite pre-installed.

The score card for 2008 reads:
1. APAC - 154,761,000
2. Western Europe - 107,832,000
3. Japan - 77,603,000
4. Americas - 64,561,000
5. CALA - 32,024,000
6. Central Europe - 24,952,000

What are the biggest surprises?
I truly did not expect the Flash Lite 2.x numbers to be so high. Adobe is forecasting that in 2008 the Americas and Western Europe will have higher Flash Lite 2.0 or 2.1 adoption than 1.1! Despite this, Flash Lite 1.1 will still most likely stay the obvious standard.

I am very excited to see that the Americas are so close in numbers to Japan. Additionally, they have more than double the numbers of Central America, Latin America, and Central Europe. It’s no surprise that Western Europe and APAC still top the charts.

What does this all mean?
As companies like Verizon continue to grow with Flash Lite, consumer adoption rates will no doubt go up as well. As a full service mobile marketing firm that is passionate about mobile and pushing the medium forward, we can continue to pursue Flash Lite development with our clients—knowing that one day in the near future it will become the mobile standard of third party development.

We have been working commercially with Flash Lite for some time. Our projects have ranged from oem user interface development, to consumer content such as custom applications and games. We couldn’t be happier about the news.

Cameron Moll has just finished and released his book, Mobile Web Design.

Much has been written about mobile devices. Plenty has been written about developing websites for the so-called “standards era” of the web. However, little has been written about the two colliding. This resource aims to fill that void.

As a reviewer of the book, and more specifically the Flash Lite section, I have had a chance to read through the entire book and it is really a great piece of writing. It is certainly not written for the mobile Web expert, but rather, it speaks perfectly to anyone in a position to develop for, manage, or give advice regarding your organizations foray into a web strategy for mobile devices.

PDF copies can be purchased for $19. Well worth it for anyone interested in the mobile space. You can also download a preview sample.

Via Bill, I recently learned that as of April 30 2007, 13 Flash Lite for BREW supported handsets represent 16 million active Verizon Wireless subscribers (reported by M:Metrics).

One of the many benefits with developing with Flash Lite is that you can target multiple devices with the same screen size using one FLA file. In the graphic below you can see how a developer would only need to create 3 FLA files to target all 13 supported Verizon Wireless handsets.

The phones that support the Flash Lite for BREW extension are: LG VX8100, LG VX8300, LG VX8500, LG VX8600, LG VX9800, LG VX9900, Motorola RAZR V3c, Motorola RAZR V3m, Motorola KRZR K1m, Samsung SCH-A930, Samsung SCH-A950, Samsung SCH-A970, and the Samsung SCH-A990.