Today I had to chance to talk via conference call with Adrian Ludwig from Adobe about their Mobile products and strategies. Looks like Adobe read my post “Flash 10.1 Mobile, Air Mobile and Flash Lite content?!” and had some comments/corrections about some specific points, which is good. So I took the chance to ask more questions!

So here a summary of our talk, in any case Adrian can fill in as the idea is to have the correct information.

Flash 10.1: Flash 10.1 is an improved (memory and performance) Flash 10 but also includes  mobile features and capabilities. It has two virtual machine so it runs AS3 and AS2 code. This was an incorrect information from my previous post (a quote from another site). So “old” Flash Lite content can run with Flash 10.1.

One point to make is that Flash 10.1 will be a browser plugin, so there are some thinking to do about providing Flash Lite content running/distributed in a browser enviroment., which has not been the distribution method until now.

Flash 10.1 & Mobile Platforms: Flash 10.1 supports at the moment Symbian, Android, Palm, Maemo. No infos at the moment about Sony Ericsson,  LG,  Samsung, Motorola. The Open Screen Project might help in this.

At the moment Palm is going to be the best match for various reasons. Palm and WinMo support will be available by the end of the year and then Symbian and Android in the first half of 2010.

Flash on iPhone: I am sure this interest many people. Development will be done only in CS5. There will be a Beta program later in the year and for obvious reasons is AS3 development only.

Forgot to ask if there was any feedback from Apple side?

Flex Mobile framework:  no timeline yet, Adobe is working on it. Seems a bit early to get information.

AIR on Mobile: no timeline yet. There will be a Beta program later on (2010). They are looking to support the Android mobile platform first. Distribution will be via OTA and via embedded from OEM. Adobe is looking to keep a consistency between desktop and mobile, where installer (.air) will be the same.

Here the strategy is similar to the Distributable Player for Flash Lite via OTA with some differences. Details are not yet available.

These type of runtimes distribution is a very tricky business. In the web/desktop world is pretty simple. But in mobile is a very complex business. I will do another post about this issue.

Flash Lite 4.0: is for low end/mass market mobile phones embedded by OEM for browsing/stanadlone/wallpaper/screensaver content. Similar to Flash Lite current status. It will have support for AS3 in addition to AS2.

Forgot to ask if it will support previous Flash Lite content?

The I asked if Adobe planning for an AppStore? There are no specific plans. They are looking to provide some services to put out content on the market.

Hopefully I got everything and Adrian might be able to fill in some more information and answer the other points that I forgot to ask. In any case I am glad that Adobe is looking at put out information so that developers can have a better idea of their mobile strategy.

Alessandro