Mobile Marketing Blog by Punchkick Interactive

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.

The AmberWatch Foundation used QUALCOMM’s recent BREW 2007 conference to take the wraps off its latest initiative, AmberWatch Mobile GPS tracking service. Among other things, the new service will allow individuals to send alerts to family and friends when they’re in need of assistance (which will include their GPS location), allow chosen friends or family members to check on an individual’s location from their PC or cellphone, and give parents the ability to set up scheduled checkups with their kids.

[Read more at engadget]

Learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s mobile marketing capabilities.

fiercedeveloper.com wrote a short article about Flash Lite’s role in the BREW ecosystem citing the October 2006 deal between Verizon Wireless and Adobe. The article from fiercedeveloper.com can be seen as a sign that Flash Lite may be gaining more acceptance from the media, and that it may soon be seen as the standard for wireless development in the US and abroad.

“Verizon’s expanding selection of handsets, and Adobe’s support of Flash Lite for BREW, is a strong signal for developers considering Flash Lite.”

At the BREW 2007 conference, we expect Adobe and Verizon Wireless to be talking about Flash Lite’s impact on some 37.5 million Americans. Verizon Wireless was the first US operator to adopt Flash Lite to it’s network, and the first operator worldwide to offer Flash Lite for BREW.

If you have interest in developing Flash Lite for BREW for Verizon Wireless, you may want to read our Adobe.com article, Developing Flash Lite for BREW applications for Verizon Wireless

Punchkick Interactive has authored it’s first article for Adobe.com. Zak Dabbas and myself (Ryan Unger) co-authored Developing Flash Lite for BREW applications for Verizon Wireless. This article covers not only the technical side of developing applications for BREW for Verizon Wireless, but also the marketing aspects of distributing content directly to Verizon Wireless or to a content catalog partner such as Atom Entertainment, FunMobility, or Smashing Ideas.

The article has three main sections:
1. Understanding the Flash Lite for BREW marketplace
2. Becoming an authorized Qualcomm BREW developer
3. Testing content on a Verizon Wireless handset

Read the full article on Adobe.com

Introduction
At the October 2006 Adobe MAX conference, Adobe and Verizon Wireless announced a partnership that would make Flash Lite content available to over 37.5 million Verizon Wireless subscribers. Flash Lite developers were understandably excited about the announcement, and teaching developers how to create content for Verizon Wireless became a central focus of the MAX conference.

This article will teach you how to develop Flash Lite for BREW content directly for Verizon Wireless. It will detail the process of becoming an authorized Qualcomm BREW developer, testing your Flash Lite for BREW content on a Verizon Wireless handset, and selling your content through Verizon Wireless.

In addition to understanding the technical specifics of creating Flash Lite for BREW content, this article will also discuss the pros and cons of using the direct model for developing and distributing Flash Lite for BREW content—including the real costs and anticipated returns on your development investment. It will also briefly cover the process of selling content through an content catalog partner, and the pros and cons associated with doing so.

Also, we would like to thank Phil Pastore for helping out with the headshots.

Learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s Flash Lite development capabilities.

Adobe began shipping the much anticipated CS3 design and Web software bundles. Additionally, Adobe has added several software titles to Labs.

Amongst the new Beta software in Labs is:

• Adobe After Effects CS3 Pro
• Adobe Premiere CS3 Pro
• Adobe Soundbooth CS3 beta 3
• Flash Lite for BREW Publisher for Flash CS3 Professional prerelease
• knowhow (preview)

After Effects and Premiere have been long overdue. I am very excited to play with both titles. Soundbooth is great and new beta versions are always fun.

The Flash Lite for BREW Publisher is obviously needed. I am very happy that Adobe released this tool. The only thing they neglected to include was a Mac bundle (sigh). I am sure that there are other developers that will only use one licenced copy of Flash CS3 (in my case on my Mac), and will need to create Mod/Mif files from it.

I am also very happy to see the knowhow demo. It seems like a great panel to add to the CS3 suite.

knowhow is a technology preview that delivers single-click, contextual access to relevant help information from a panel in Adobe® Creative Suite® 3 software. knowhow gives users access to a wide variety of information—basic tool descriptions and short cuts, Adobe Help content, as well as community-generated tutorials, tips, and techniques on the web.

First noted by Aniway:

Adobe released the mobile device profile update #5. Get it here. This update contains or makes changes to the following device profiles:

• Nokia 3250
• Nokia 5200
• Nokia 5300
• Nokia 5500
• Nokia 6085
• Nokia 6125
• Nokia 6131
• Nokia 6151
• Nokia 6300
• Nokia 7390
• Nokia 8800
• Nokia E50
• Nokia E60
• Nokia E61
• Nokia E62
• Nokia E70-1
• Nokia N70-1
• Nokia N71-1
• Nokia N73
• Nokia N75
• Nokia N80
• Nokia N91-1
• Nokia N92
• Nokia N93
• Nokia N93i
• Sony-Ericsson K600
• Sony-Ericsson K600c
• Sony-Ericsson K600i
• Sony-Ericsson K606c
• Sony-Ericsson K606i
• Sony-Ericsson K608c
• Sony-Ericsson K608i
• Sony-Ericsson K610iM
• Sony-Ericsson V600i
• Sony-Ericsson V800
• Sony-Ericsson W300i
• Sony-Ericsson W550c
• Sony-Ericsson W550i
• Sony-Ericsson W600c
• Sony-Ericsson W600i
• Sony-Ericsson W710i
• Sony-Ericsson W810i
• Sony-Ericsson W830a
• Sony-Ericsson W830c
• Sony-Ericsson W830i
• Sony-Ericsson W850i
• Sony-Ericsson Z712a
• Sony-Ericsson Z800i
• Verizon Motorola RAZR V3c
• Verizon Motorola RAZR V3m
• Verizon LG VX9800
• Verizon Samsung SCH-A950

Download here.

After several months of posts, we finally decided to have www.punchkickinteractive.com/blog/ aggregated by MXNA. The Punchkick Interactive blog discusses all things mobile marketing including: Flash Lite enabled software, BREW, sms campaigns, and mobile Web sites. The blog is maintained by Ryan Unger and Zak Dabbas—co-owners of Punchkick Interactive mobile marketing and design firm.

Via Scott:

Showcase your best BREW® applications and gain recognition at the BREW 2007 Conference - submit your nominations today!

We’ve extended the submission deadline to March 14, so don’t miss out on your chance to be recognized by your peers and industry leaders for your outstanding contributions in developing BREW-based mobile applications. Winners will be revealed at an awards ceremony held at the BREW 2007 Conference in San Diego June 20 - 22, 2007.

The BREW 2007 Developer Awards will recognize the best BREW applications in the following categories:

* Best Up and Coming Application
* Best Public Service Application (New Category!)
* Best Business or Productivity Application
* Best Location-Based Service Application
* Best Community Application
* Best Entertainment Application
* Best Game Application
* People’s Choice Award

Submit your entry forms and application demos online at http://www.brew2007awards.com

For more information about the BREW 2007 Conference, visit http://www.brew2007.com

Straight from the source. Dale announced today that his Flash Lite Total Training DVD he presented on is now available for purchase from the Total Training site. It’s aimed at Flash developers moving into mobile, and for developers still involved in FL 1.1 to make a move into 2.0/2.1.

Click here to view Adobe Flash Lite 2.1 product information at Total Training.

Rupen Chanda will be speaking at the 2007 BREW conference, and he is hoping that developer community feedback on Flash Lite for BREW could be posted to the Flash Lite forums. Developer feedback topics will be address in his presentation this June.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

If anyone is interested in designing or developing WAP sites for mobile phones, I have found some very useful information and put together this list of 11 essential tools for mobile Web development. You can also learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s mobile WAP and Web Site development capabilities.

Tools and Resources:

1. Mobi Ready score
Get your free page analysis and Mobi Ready score. This report tests the mobile-readiness of your site using industry best practices & standards

2. XHTML mobile phone emulator
Type in your .com / .net / .org / .biz, etc. site address and you can check how your site looks to a typical mobile phone user. Available handsets are the Nokia n70 and a Sony K750.

3. Submit Your Mobile Site to yahoo.com
This form lets you submit a mobile site to yahoo.com so that the mobile site will be included in search results when someone searches via their mobile handset at http://wap.yahoo.com.

4. The Mobile Domainatron
The Mobile Domainatron demonstrates a domain name’s mobile usability including: Calculating total keystrokes required to input the domain name on a typical i-mode mobile.

5. Mimic
Mimic (formerly i-Mimic) emulates either an N400i (European) or N505i (Japanese) i-mode mobile. Simply enter a URL and select the mobile you want to emulate.

6. YOSPACE.com phone emulators
You can either use the free online emulator for the 40+ handsets or you can use the standalone developer version on your PC. From here you can download the standalone version with a restriction of 5 minutes of use. Alternatively, you can buy a single user license is £299 + UK VAT.

7. WURFL - the Wireless Universal Resource File
The WURFL is an XML configuration file which contains information about capabilities and features of several wireless devices. The main scope of the file is to collect as much information as possible about all the existing wireless devices that access WAP pages so that developers will be able to build better applications and better services for the users.

8. Article :: The Mobile Web Top 10
Pukupi’s top 10 hints for building interoperable mobile web sites really spells out much of what has been questioned regarding mobile Web site development.

9. Article :: Making Small Devices Look Great
Opera has put together this wonderful resource that gives code examples, tips, and emulator advice for developing mobile XHTML pages.

10. Article :: Global Authoring Practices for the Mobile Web
This document gives general guidelines for web developers and content authors who are searching for directions to help create sites for the mobile web.

11. Blog :: http://www.handheldusability.com/
Handheld Usability is the first book to cover the emerging field of handheld product design. The book covers everything from product design cycles to optimum menu length and audicon (audio-icon) characteristics. Read the first chapter and preview other sections here.

As far as I can tell there is no way for a regular consumer to buy screensavers through their handsets. I’ve built working screensavers for my BREW enabled Motorola V3m with Verizon and loaded them using Qualcomm’s AppLoader—but I am not a regular consumer. That said, does anyone know for sure if Verizon supports Flash Lite screensavers and wallpapers for any of it’s phones? There was a great deal of talk about this at MAX last October, but it was never clarified if screensavers and wallpapers for BREW phones are a thing of the future-or possible today.