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Develop Rich Mobile Applications with the help of Forum Nokia and Adobe - a Report from MAX
Written by Glenn Letham
Thursday, 04 October 2007
Recently, while much of the business world's attention was on the Nokia / Navteq deal, a team from Nokia (I should say Forum Nokia) was hard at it in Chicago at the annual Adobe MAX conference. I have to admit, I wasn't sure what to expect when I first got there, however, that soon changed once I started hearing all the news and putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. This article looks at how Adobe and Nokia are making it simple for developers to create rich mobile applications using Flash Lite
Nokia – The Internet Company
If there’s one thing that struck me while I was there it was an
opening comment from Forum Nokia Director of Marketing, Eric John who
firmly and confidently pointed out that Nokia is indeed an Internet
company. I felt this was an appropriate opening from the relatively new
exec given that he’s just jumped onboard with team Nokia from Yahoo!,
perhaps one of the most recognizable Internet companies on the planet!
This may not seem like anything new to many of you, however, this fact
does indeed firmly lay the groundwork for the company’s direction. All
one needs to do is to recognize that there are more than 900 million
Nokia devices in use around the Globe. Add to this that Nokia connects
more users to the Internet than anyone… indeed I would have to say
Nokia is not just “a” Internet company but “THE” Internet company. One
example of mobile connectivity can be found in a recent market research
study (see http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/4889/)
that revealed 92% of the male survey respondents claimed to work away
from the office each week. Some 89% of the same respondents claim that
mobile e-mail makes it simpler to provide better and faster service to
customer – Indeed the mobile Internet and mobile connectivity is indeed
an important space.
Note: Recall Nokia recently rolled out MOSH
(Mobilize and Share) the dynamic social community web resource where
mobile device users can easily connect to the service (via PC or
mobile) and then browse, upload and share mobile content – photos,
video, documents, applications, product demos or ?? It should be noted
that MOSH is accessible from any web enabled device and not just a
Nokia handset! MOSH is a fine service that is a testament to the fact
that Nokia is indeed an Internet player!
Nokia is connecting mobile device users to the Internet and providing a fun, social networking experience via MOSH.
The News
It was first thing Monday morning when I saw the press announcements... Adobe had rolled out Flash Lite 3 (http://www.symbianone.com/content/view/4879/108/)
and in a timely manner, Forum Nokia had launched a new developer
community , one
focused on Flash and dedicated to helping the developer port Adobe Flash
content to the mobile environment. The developer portal is part of a
larger mandate of the company to support Adobe Flash Lite 3.0 as part
of a strategy to deliver a rich Internet experience to Nokia device
users. So to recap, simply put, the Creative Pros developer community
now exists to help the developer optimize existing Flash desktop
content for the latest Nokia mobile devices. See www.forum.nokia.com/creativepros.
Creative Pros offers everything the developer needs to help with Flash Lite development
More on Flash Lite 3…
Simply put, the software enables the delivery of dynamic web content
on mobile devices (no, not just Nokia or S60 devices). With support for
Adobe Flash player compatible video, mobile devices that support Flash
Lite 3 will be able to provide users with the delivery of dynamic web
content and rich video. The good news so far, Nokia and NTT DoCoMo have
both committed to start delivering Flash Lite enabled devices – I
believe Nokia has already proclaimed that at least 10 such devices will
come to market in 2008, with many more down the road.
To date, Nokia already has some 56 devices that support Flash
Lite, these falling under the S60 and S40 umbrella. These devices come
with Adobe Flash Lite pre-installed. These include:
- 8 S60 3 FP1 devices including the N95, 6110 Navigator, E90, N76
- 21 S60 3 devices including the 3250, E50, N80, N91 and more
- 4 S60 2nd Edition FP3 devices
- 23 S40 devices including the 6500, 6300, 6125 and many others
As far as the current “state of the union”… there currently exists
more than 300 million flash-enabled devices and get this, Adobe expects
that there will be more than one billion flash-enabled devices in the
hands of users by 2010… can you see where this going? Enter the
developer…
With an expected billion+ mobile flash users just around the
corner both Nokia and Adobe are starting to encourage developers to
create supported applications, games, and web services.
More than 50 announced Nokia device models support Flash Lite.
• Eighty percent of the mobile devices shipping in Japan today can run Flash software.
Handango, Iguana Mobile, and MOBIBASE, three of the world’s leading
content aggregators, have signed up to accept Flash Lite content
(source: Adobe).
With the rapid growth of devices that can run Flash software — from 38
million in 2005 to more than 220 million in early 2007 — Adobe expects
the number of such devices to reach the 1 billion mark by 2010.
Flash Lite also adds features that are uniquely mobile,
including the ability to vibrate the devices and send text messages.
For Flash developers, it's an easy transition: They can use the same
powerful Adobe tools to create Flash content for mobile devices as they
do for desktop computers.
Flash Lite features:
support for rendering of SWF files for Flash Player 8
optimized through more efficient resource management
FLV support
Improved web browsability with support for most Flash 8 content
Faster performance
MMI extensions for UI design
Integrated authoring environment
Multiplatform support
What kind or mobile applications are using Flash you might ask?
Plenty... including animated Flash games, advertisements, dynamic
wallpapers and screensavers, websites, album skins, Flash video and desktop
Flash 8 multimedia. Advertising is expected to be a HUGE growth area
for flash application developers and those looking to monetize their
mobile applications. We heard at MAX that last year alone there was
more than $400 million spent on mobile ads last year… that number is
expected to explode to more than $4 billion by 2011… kaching $$$
Kevin Lynch, Adobe lead architect noted at MAX that with the
recent product launches from Adobe and the supporting Adobe Developer
Connection, developers are already rolling out simple yet engaging web
applications and services. Skilled Adobe application developers are
rolling out social networking websites and other compelling and
engaging web 2.0 resources. Now, with the release of Flash Lite 3 (see http://www.adobe.com/products/flashlite/)
developers have the tools needed to migrate these traditional web
resources to a mobile environment with relative ease, creating
compelling mobile applications that offer a similar experience that is
found on the traditional web.
Adobe Chief Software Architect, Kevin Lynch at MAX
At MAX during the opening session we were treaded to advice from
Adobe technical leads on how to create exciting applications. Shantanu
Narayen reminded us how to make content exciting: the customer is front
and center; the developer needs to focus on the individual; address
human and emotional needs through a captivating user experience… all
are good pieces of advice. Perhaps most important, and not to be
forgotten, content is king! Narayen reminds the developer to focus on
the content first and foremost then address the user interface. He
notes how we can’t go wrong with that thinking… and remember that great
digital experiences adapt to the user… so in short, be sure to give the
user what they want. Finally, he left us with a couple of other “words
of wisdom”… make it personal, make it phone, but most important,
remember that less is more! (what he’s referring to is that the
developer needs to make sure he simplifies the user experience)
Test your Apps - Adobe Device Central CS3
Adobe Developer Connection is a must visit resource at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/
- take note of the Mobile developer section – image devcenter1.jpg. Of
particular interest is the Adobe Device Central CS3 section,
specifically for creative professionals and mobile developers who want
to produce innovative and compelling content for a broad range of
mobile phones and consumer electronics devices. Users can easily
design, test, and preview their mobile content - http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/device_central.html.
Device central provides a comprehensive list of Flash and Flash Lite
supported mobile devices. Search the device directory to obtain
detailed device specifications and other technical data. Then, preview
and test the performance of your flash applications to see exactly what
kind of experience the end user will enjoy. Developers can interact
with their apps and devices via an online emulator – you can even see a
n updated meter that shows system performance and memory consumption as
it will occur on the device while running the actual application.
One Step further… Enter Forum Nokia and the Creative Pros
As I already mentioned, Forum Nokia elected to use Adobe MAX 2007
as the forum to officially roll-out the new “creative Pros” website -
a community to help the mobile developer, Adobe Flash developer
community (a whopping 1.5 million strong!), and other design
professionals to grow and extend their business opportunities to mobile
devices. Users of Creative Pros (www.forum.nokia.com/creativepros/) are
immediately treated to a number of supporting documents, tools and
more. Developers can immediately locate the following:
- Documents - including visual guidelines, UI examples, help docs. To
start, the following white paper is a good read: "How to Prototype
Applications with Flash"
- Tools and SDKs
- sample code, usability tricks
- discussion boards and a knowledge base
- tricks on porting from other platforms
It should be should be noted that Flash Lite is not only supported
by Symbian OS and S60 3 devices. Flash Lite also runs on Qualcomm BREW,
MS Windows Mobile 5, and countless other OEM platforms. Developers
looking for more information on which particular devices are supporting
Flash Lite should consult the following www.adobe.com/mobile/supported_devices
Committed To Mobile Flash and the Developer
Nokia reiterated at MAX that they are firmly committed to Flash and
that at least 10 devices supporting Flash Lite 3 will come to market in
2008. For more information on devices supporting Flash I suggest you
check out http://www.flashdevices.net/. For a complete list of Nokia devices that support flash see this useful document [PDF]. Developers now have access to a rich, community resources via Adobe developer central http://www.adobe.com/devnet/ and the Nokia Creative Pros Community… everything you need to introduce you to mobile Flash application development. Perhaps your next Flash Lite enabled mobile application will be featured on stage at MAX 2008.
For developers taking advantage
of the demand for mobile video, the announcement of Flash Lite 3 and
the support for Flash video is HUGE! The Adobe® Flash® Lite™ 3 runtime
supports FLV, the most popular video format on the Internet, best known
from popular sites such as CNN, YouTube, and MySpace. With Flash Lite
3, users can engage with web video on their devices just as they do on
the desktop, either by streaming video or by downloading video clips as
standalone applications or when integrated with a mobile web browser.
Developers can build, preview, and test Flash Lite 3 content using
Flash CS3 Professional and Adobe Device Central CS3. The perfect way to
get started is to register (free) at the Adobe Mobile & Devices
Developer Center. Developers looking for a starting point should
register and then grab the Download the Flash Lite 3.0 Update for
Device Central CS3 in order to author, test, and publish Flash Lite 3.0
mobile content.
Navigation and Location Europe 2009 - Europe's largest gathering of Navigation & Location pioneers is back for the 5th year. The conference strives to keep one step ahead of the market by providing the most up to date business information. June 10-11, 2009
Where 2.0 Conference 2009 - The O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference will pinpoint how far location
technology has reached, explore the boundaries of geospace, and point
the way into the location frontier at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose,
CA, May 19-21, 2009. O'Reilly Media and program chair Brady Forrest
invite proposals for conference sessions, workshops, demos, and panels
for Where 2.0 2009.
Telematics Detroit 2009 Conference & Exhibition, June 2-3
- The world's leading event for the digital in-car and mobile industry
is back for another successful year. Telematics content and service
strategies for winning hyper connected customers will be revealed.
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