Adobe to provide Flash for Mobile Devices

Adobe Systems Inc. today announced the Open Screen Project, the project which is dedicated to driving rich Internet experiences across televisions, personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics. The Open Screen Project is supported by a group of industry leaders, including ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics Inc., Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, Verizon Wireless and by leading content providers, including BBC, MTV Networks, and NBC Universal, who want to reliably deliver rich Web and video experiences live and on-demand across a variety of devices.

Adobe Flash Player is the world’s most pervasive client runtime, delivering unparalleled creative options, highly engaging user experiences, stunning audio/video playback, and universal reach. Content for Adobe Flash Player reaches over 98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops and more than a half billion handsets and mobile devices today. Adobe expects more than one billion handsets and mobile devices to ship with Adobe Flash technology by 2009.

Flash technology is used to deliver vector graphics, text, interactivity and application logic, video and sound over the Internet. More than 75 percent of broadcasters who stream video on the Web use Flash technology. Adobe AIR is the next-generation RIA (Rich Internet applications) runtime for the desktop, supporting HTML, Ajax, Adobe Flash technology and PDF.

Many mobile applications have met with disappointment from consumers. And game and video developers have been burdened with cranking out numerous versions of applications for mobile devices, said Kevin Lynch, Adobe’s chief technology officer.

“You have to make over 100 different versions of that game in order to actually make it work across all these different phones,” Lynch said

Web browsing on mobile devices is becoming commonplace, but delivering a consistent rich Internet experience remains a challenge. To ensure that user expectations are fulfilled, software applications and video must work seamlessly across multiple devices and content must be easily available across those devices.

The Open Screen Project will enable the runtime technology to be updated seamlessly over the air on mobile devices. Adobe will continue to open access to Adobe Flash technology, accelerating the deployment of content and rich Internet applications (RIAs) by removing licensing fees ,making next major releases of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices free.

“Adobe is spearheading the Open Screen Project with support from industry leaders who share a common vision to provide rich, interactive experiences across computers, devices and consumer electronics,” said Shantanu Narayen, chief executive officer at Adobe. “A consistent, more open platform for developers will drive rapid innovation, vastly improving the user experience.”