Verizon Wireless® and Adobe Forge Alliance

Verizon Wireless may never stop working for its subscribers to bring them the best wireless network in North America as its ads famously proclaim. Nor does the mobile operator think twice when choosing a partner who can help deliver the best mobile experiences in the industry. Verizon Wireless and Adobe Systems Incorporated recently forged an alliance to deliver interactive, mobile content experiences based on Flash technology for Verizon Wireless customers in North America. This alliance makes Verizon Wireless the first wireless operator to introduce handsets with Flash technology in the North American market by the end of this year, which is a huge deal for both Verizon Wireless and its subscribers.


Verizon Wireless recognizes that Flash is the leading technology for delivering rich experiences—including enhanced content and browsing, customized user interfaces, and data services—and that the Flash authoring environment with its powerful combination of ease of use and scripting simplifies the process of creating a new generation of visually rich applications that appeals to well over one million content developers worldwide.

Flash technology will enable Verizon Wireless to reduce deployment costs, offer more consistent playback across diverse devices, and develop content and user interfaces three to five times faster than competing solutions. For subscribers, Flash technology will bring to mobile phones the same engaging experiences they are familiar with from their desktop environments. As industry observer Amar Maktal points out in his blog "Mark my words… mobile Flash will change everything: gaming, game development time, Flash-enabled WAP sites with Flash interfaces. … I expect to see subscription WAP services offering Flash content…"


At last, the wireless community in North America will be able to experience the same excitement generated by the advent of engaging Flash content and applications on mobile devices that has already captivated the wireless communities in Asia and Europe.

Nokia® to Support Adobe Reader LE on S60 Handsets Mobile technology has changed the way we communicate, work, or access information on the go—from e-mail to web pages to locally stored content, and Adobe Systems Incorporated has been on the forefront of enriching the Internet experiences of mobile users worldwide. Case in point: Adobe Reader LE.

Adobe Reader LE technology enables users to view rich, high-impact content delivered in the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) on their mobile devices. Adobe Reader LE has already been installed on millions of NTT DoCoMo FOMA handsets in Japan, and now Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer, has chosen to integrate Adobe Reader LE into its S60 platform to enable users to view and interact with a wide range of business and entertainment content. Remember that contract that came to you as a PDF attachment? Or the latest product datasheet that you downloaded off the Web? As a Nokia S60 user, you can now view these documents with a single press of a button.


PDF is one of the leading standards on the web and desktop, and by supporting billions of existing PDF content on mobile devices, Adobe Reader LE enables operators and S60 licensees to differentiate their products and services and to promote more data usage over their networks.

Sony® Adopts Flash Technology for PSP™ Flash is mobile, and device manufacturers are realizing its benefits and potential for more than just handsets. Following Eastman Kodak and iRiver, which have chosen Flash technology to power the Kodak EasyShare-one digital camera and the iRiver U10 personal media player, Sony is the latest major consumer electronics manufacturer to adopt Flash technology for one of its most popular portable devices, the PlayStation®Portable (PSP).

The latest edition of Sony's best-selling portable media player uses Flash Player SDK, the Flash Player profile developed for consumer electronics devices, to deliver superior web-browsing experiences anytime and anywhere to millions of PSP users worldwide. Like the iRiver U10, the PSP also enables users to download Flash games and content, which, in turn, generates new opportunities for millions of Flash developers to create innovative and engaging games and content for the latest consumer devices on the Flash Platform.


Today, more than 77 million devices use Flash technology to enrich the experiences of their users, and since its launch in December 2004, Sony has shipped 15 million units of the PSP in Japan, Europe, and North America.

NTT DoCoMo® i-channel™ Subscribers Pass Two Million Mark While mobile operators in North America and Europe are still in search of the silver bullet for monetizing on their huge investments in network infrastructures and data services, a key player in the Japanese mobile market appears to have found the secret to giving its subscribers the rich, easily discoverable, and personalized mobile content they demand. NTT DoCoMo recently reported that more than two million mobile subscribers have signed up for its i-channel service, Japan's fastest-growing news and information service for mobile phones.

Since its launch in September 2005, the i-channel data service has grown tremendously in popularity among NTT DoCoMo subscribers with i-channel–enabled phones, 42% of whom subscribe to the i-channel service. The key to this success is due in no small part to Macromedia FlashCast™ technology from Adobe, a clientserver solution that delivers innovative mobile data services to today's sophisticated handsets. FlashCast™ technology powers the i-channel service and makes it easy for subscribers to discover and navigate rich, interactive content. Says Takeshi Natsuno, senior vice president at NTT DoCoMo, "We have been astonished by the unprecedented success of i-channel, which proves that consumers embrace data services when they are automatically delivered and presented in a compelling and interactive way."