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Introducing Macromedia Flash Lite 1.1

Back in February 2003 Macromedia announced Flash Lite, a new Flash profile based on the Flash 4 scripting engine. This profile targets mass-market phones that do not have sufficient processing power and memory to support the entire Flash Player 7 feature set available on the desktop.

Just announced, Flash Lite 1.1 builds on the Flash Lite 1.0 profile for mobile phones. The release adds several keys features related to connectivity, device-specific capabilities, and standards support. I'll address these new features below, but first I'd like to provide an overview of Flash Lite and the market.

Flash Lite Overview

With Flash Lite, developers can create great interactive multimedia experiences for mass-market mobile phones. The first mobile phone service to adopt Flash Lite was Japan's NTT DoCoMo. Since its inception, NTT's i-mode service has been amazingly successful for the company and its users, and for Flash developers .

Statistics confirm that users are adopting i-mode phones and downloading i-mode content in droves. In fact, the NTT DoCoMo release with Flash has been the quickest adoption of new handsets for NTT DoCoMo to date, with more than 25 different handset models shipping with Flash Lite preinstalled.

Even more astounding, 35% of all i-mode content sites are now Flash-enabled, even the home page menu (preloaded) of the i-mode portal on the i-mode 900i series mobile is Flash-based, which means customers are experiencing interactive multimedia as soon as they turn on their phones. And this is only the beginning.

Flash Lite offers the following features for mobile phones:

• HTTP-based data connectivity*
• SVG support* (playback only)
• Expanded access to phone capabilities*
• A new content development kit (CDK)*
• Vector graphics rendering
• Bitmap images
• Gradients
• Audio - event sound
• Static text with fonts embedded in the SWF file
• Input and dynamic text with fonts embedded in the SWF file
• Input and dynamic device text
• Frame-based animation
• Tweened animation - motion and shape tweening
• ActionScript (Scripting) – Flash 4 supported
• Keyboard navigation

* Introduced with Flash Lite 1.1

With the above features, you can deploy content such as cartoons, games, screensavers, animated ringtones, applications (connected and unconnected), user interfaces, learning content, and enterprise applications to mass-market mobile phones.

Market Challenges and Opportunities

The market for Flash Lite on mobile phones is about to expand for developers. Like developing for the Mac and PC platforms, you will be able to use Flash to develop compelling Flash Lite content and applications for distribution and display on mobile phones worldwide.

However, the player technology and distribution model is different from that of Flash Player. Today, each mobile phone manufacturer must customize and integrate Flash Lite into the phone's OS and also define integration points.

As more smart phones (Symbian, Palm, Smartphone, BREW), enter the market, we expect the player distribution model to evolve. Like Flash Player on the web, in time, we expect Flash Lite to be ubiquitous in the mobile phone industry.

Flash Lite: Benefits for Mobile Phone Manufacturers

There are several reasons why Flash Lite is an optimal choice for mobile manufacturers who want to provide interactive content on their mobile phones. For handset manufacturers, OEMs, and operators, Flash Lite offers the following benefits:

Rich user experiences

Flash Lite deliver engaging content, rich interactive user interfaces, and mobile applications that consumers are demanding. You can quickly prototype and develop rich mobile content and applications that play back across multiple browsers, platforms, and devices using Macromedia Flash, a tool that more than one million designers and developers use every day.

Existing, proven technology

Macromedia Flash is the standard for vector graphics on the desktop. The same engine also powers a growing number of ubiquitous mobile devices.

The Flash developer base for creating content

The Flash Lite platform brings with it the existing one million Flash developers who are seasoned at building rich user interfaces, games, animation, enterprise applications, and e-learning applications to Flash Lite. In fact, the Flash developer community has experience creating applications of all types, including wallpapers, business and e-learning applications, cartoons, dynamic user interfaces, and sports, news, and weather applications, all of which are instantly applicable to the mobile phone market.

New Features in Flash Lite 1.1

Flash Lite 1.1 builds on the Flash Lite 1.0 profile for mobile phones. Here's an overview of each new Flash Lite 1.1 feature, and reasons why each is important to handset manufacturers, OEMs, operators, and content developers:

Network connectivity

Flash Lite content can now exchange data with a server through an HTTP connection, also the data streams to the phone, which greatly improves the user experience. Developers now have a new raft of possibilities for creating applications that can pull data now for dynamic content updates. Previously with Flash Lite 1.0, mobile phone users could only view static content (screensavers, wallpapers), and could only update once it was replaced/reloaded. Developers can now build applications like news headlines, sports scores, and menus, and update them dynamically.

Mobile SVG support

Macromedia is committed to supporting standards in the market place, and the mobile world is no different. With the release of Flash Lite 1.1, we are meeting the requirement of playback of the W3C open standard Scaleable Vector Graphics (SVG-T) directly within our player, as it is mandated by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for use within Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages. This way, handset manufacturers, OEMs, and operators can deploy a single technology (Flash Lite) and be better integrated in the phone operating system (as opposed to using multiple technologies based on multiple standards), which makes for a much simpler deployment with one player instead of many.

Phone capabilities

Developers now have access to specific mobile phone capabilities, such as network connectivity status, date and time, vibrate functionality, language support, audio support, and others. They can create content specific to a consumer’s mobile phone environment, and can graphically represent these elements to consumers, thus providing a more integrated experience.

Flash Lite 1.1 Content Development Kit

As of today we are also announcing the availability of a Flash Lite 1.1 Content Development Kit (CDK) for Flash MX Professional 2004. Developers can use the kit to start creating and testing content for the upcoming platforms. The CDK also includes examples and tutorials. Download the CDK now in the Mobile and Devices Developer Center.

Note: While the CDK contains authoring guidelines for creating content for Flash Lite 1.1, it does not give custom guidelines for any specific mobile phone platforms. In the coming weeks, we will announce new licensees and publish specific guidelines for each.

Summary

At Macromedia, we believe Flash Lite is positioned to lead the way to a rich, compelling interactive experience on mobile phones. We also believe Flash Lite will expand opportunities for content providers and Flash developers. If you would like to learn more about Flash Lite, please visit the Mobile and Devices Developer Center. If you have question or feedback about Flash Lite or would like to get involved, please send me an e-mail.

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