More FLash Lite enabled devices announced - First FL 3 phone?

I may have just beaten Alessandro to posting about some new Flash Lite enabled devices! Amazing!! Ahh, he's off enjoying MWC in Barcelona, so I don't feel too bad :) Checkout the nice new Nokia 3120 Classic with FL 2.1 (S40 5th Ed. FP1), 6210 Navigator (S60 3rd Ed. FP 2) listed as having 2.1 also, and the 6220 Classic (S60 3rd Ed. FP 2) - listed as having FL3.0!

Now a couple of things. Not sure that even though the 6210 and 6220 are both S60 3rd Ed. FP2 why one has FL2.1 and the other has FL3.0. Anyone?

Also, the picture for the 6220 Classic isn't the right phone! There is an old 6220 (S40 Dev Platfom 1) from 2003, so it seems the product numbering is on the way round the merry-go-round again :)

Anyway, bring them on!

webDU 2008 Dates Announced!

The dates have been confirmed for the greatest thing that happens down here ... if you're a nerd ... webDU! From Geoff:

Clear your diaries, inform your loved ones and pack a clean change of underwear because the premier Asia-Pacific web event for 2008 has been confirmed. webDU will be held on 12-13 June at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour, Sydney.

This year will be the greatest yet, with a wide range of speakers who will tantalise the mind and enlighten even the most decrepit developer's soul.

webDU covers a range of topics including Flash, Flex, AIR, JavaScript, ColdFusion, CSS, design, usability and more. If you're tangled in the Web, then this is an event you don't want to miss.

There will also be workshop groups running on 11 June for those who simply cannot wait to sink their teeth into webDU goodness. The conference agenda itself is being assembled over the course of the next month. Stay tuned for further updates at www.webdu.com.au

And yes, I'll be there again for my 5th webDU conference. I'm looking forward to delivering some great Flash Lite news, information, demoes and opportunities this year - more to come so stay tuned!

Japanese women go wild customising mobiles

An article this morning just highlighting again the huge market in mobile personalisation and customisation in Japan - particularly with women.

Customisation goes beyond just wallpapers and screensavers (what we know as "personalisation" here). It goes into adding charms and flashing lights, and even having the casing hand-painted with unique artwork.

Some would say, "Only in Japan". Read article.

One in four iPhones sold in US "missing in action"

I'm sure that Jobsy and his crew aren't quite freaking out, but they're probably not feeling quite as comfortable about their "one carrier" policy for the iPhone as they once did. Based on some recent research, around 27% of devices in the wild have been unlocked and are being used on carriers other than AT&T.

It's a serious issue that Apple will be thinking about, since it represents not just customer dissatisfaction with the model, but an erosion of their ecosystem for delivering and commercialising services behind their "walled garden", which in turn ultimately affects stock prices and revenue forecasts.

For example, Mr Sacconaghi said, if Apple hit its sales goal of 10 million iPhones by the end of the 2008 financial year but 30 per cent of those didn't result in any carrier payments, then its revenue and profit would be $500 million and 37 cents per share lower than expected.

The next 12-18 months will be very interesting for the current iPhone sales model, IMO.

Mobile Content $64b by 2012

Via MocoNews: Juniper Research has issued its (typically bullish) predictions for mobile content, predicting the total global mobile content market will rise from $20 billion in 2007 to more than $64 billion by 2012. This is lower than previous predictions from the company-which at the end of 2006 predicted the market would it $77 billion by 2011. The top three sectors are and will be music, games and video (some of these predicted figures have come out before, I include them now for completeness).

• Mobile music will remain the largest sector of mobile content, with revenues rising from nearly $9 billion in 2007 to $17.5 billion in 2012, bolstered by the increasing availability of full-track download and streamed services, the former in both paid-for and rental formats.
• Mobile games will be second in terms of end-user generated revenues (which may exclude advertising), and will rise from $5 billion in 2007 to nearly $16 billion in 2012, according to Juniper.
• Mobile TV will rise from $1.4 billion in 2007 to $11.9 billion in 2012.

The remainder will be made up of other sectors, including User-generated Content, Gambling, Adult and Infotainment. Juniper reckons that adult content and gambling will be inhibited by regulations and prohibitions, and on a regional note predicted that China and the Far East will remain the largest regional market for mobile entertainment for the next five years, with revenues rising from $8.5 billion in 2007 to nearly $21.3 billion by 2012.

Adobe Mobile Podcast Series

Watch or listen to this podcast series aimed at creative professionals new to mobile, as Adobe host John Agger walks you through tutorials on mobile content creation. The Adobe Mobile Podcast series is created in partnership with Terry White’s Creative Suite Video podcast and includes the following episodes:

• Why mobile is important
  
• Mobile & Devices Part 2
• Getting started with mobile

Verizon Opens Up in 2008

Seems that "open" is the new mobile buzzword and everyone is getting in on it ... Verizon is the latest with the announcement today that they will open the deck to third-party apps and non-VZW handsets by the end of 2008.

Verizon Wireless today announced that it will provide customers the option to use, on its nationwide wireless network, wireless devices, software and applications not offered by the company. Verizon Wireless plans to have this new choice available to customers throughout the country by the end of 2008.

In early 2008, the company will publish the technical standards the development community will need to design products to interface with the Verizon Wireless network. Any device that meets the minimum technical standard will be activated on the network. Devices will be tested and approved in a $20 million state-of-the-art testing lab which received an additional investment this year to gear up for the anticipated new demand. Any application the customer chooses will be allowed on these devices.

Read on ...

Where is Adobe in Google's OMHA?

This week saw the big announcement from Google relating to the upcoming Google Phone, where they discussed the Open Mobile Handset Alliance. Basically it is the group of companies (set to grow I imagine over time) that are wolrking on solutions for the Google Phone's open hardware/software platform.

One noticeable name not on the list (noticeable to me anyway) is Adobe.

I would have thought that given the amount of time this whole Google Phone thing has been gearing up, and the prospect of a mobile device from one of the largest companies in the world (not to mention a seemingly more open platform to work with), that Adobe would have been all over this from the point of view of making sure that this thing is Flash/Flash Lite enabled.

I don't profess to have indepth knowledge of how Adobe's internal decisions are made at this level, because this is a much higher level than most Flash Lite developers generally appreciate. But I would hate it if next year at the MAX conference, people were walking around with their Google Phones and the MaD team were having to field the question, "so why doesn't it have Flash on it?" like they did this year with the iPhone.

Maybe they ARE all over it and just haven't formally announced anything yet - all of which is perfectly acceptable. It would have been nice though to see the red and white logo there at the time of the OMHA unveiling for some "market confidence".

New viral Flash game for web and mobile

Moket has just launched a new viral Flash game (web+mobile) for Wotif.com called "Ruck-a-mole". It's just one of the many campaigns that you'll see starting to popup around the place based around the upcoming Rugby World Cup, but this one doesn't take itself too seriously.

There's a whole lot more that we could have done with it probably if we had more time (we only had 2 weeks to do it) but we're pretty happy with how it turned out. We wanted to try a few different angles on helping this go viral, so we added a quick link to post the game to your Facebook account, the mobile version, and a copy'n'paste HTML block for adding a banner to your site. So far we've had over 1000 plays in the first 24 hours.

From the mobile perspective, we wanted to try out some new frameworks Moket has been developing for game development, and see how easy it would be to port something from the browser to FLash Lite 2.0. In the end, we proably spent about 2-3 days on the mobile version, out of the 2 weeks we spent on the web version+database. Not bad I reckon. It's a good case study in approaches to cross-platform marketing for companies willing to go the extra mile and get more bang for their buck when using Flash.

Anyway, check out www.ruckamole.com

(in case you're trying to work it out, it's a whack-a-mole style game but with rugby playing moles popping up from a rugby field. And in rugby, you have this thing called a "ruck")

Moket featured in latest Adobe "Plugged In"

I've been very kindly featured in the latest Adobe (ANZ) "Plugged In" eNewsletter, talking about Moket and Flash Lite - click here for the online version. Thanks to Mark and the Sydney office for the support!

Fever Animation signs content deal with Moket

We're happy to announce today that Fever Animation has signed a deal with Moket for the development of Flash Lite mobile content (including games and personalisation content) for their incredible short animated film, "FEVER".



We'd like to thank Charlie Griak and the team there for getting on board with Moket and we're really excited about the content we have planned for later this year. If you haven't heard of "FEVER" before, check out the website for the trailer and downloads.

More news to come as we announce the release of content and where you can find it. If you're interested in licensing and distribution, drop us a line. Moket has been actively developing relationships with film makers, designers, animators and the creative industry in general to uncover and license content that we feel will generate some very exciting and compelling Flash mobile content. It's all about bringing out content that leverages the abilities of Flash Lite and creating new experiences for mobile consumers.

Amp'd files for bankruptcy

Mobile-content-focused MVNO Amp'd Mobile has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, owing a bucket load of money to Verizon and other content licensors (MTV, etc).

http://ces.engadget.com/2007/06/02/ampd-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy/

http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-ampd-mobile-to-file-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-hopes-to-restructure-with/

Great mobile marketing site

I don't remember this site making it's way through the Flash Lite blogosphere, but if it has, my apologies for the repeat ... Here's a fantastic website dedicated to marketing something we all know and love, but in a way that no one would expect. Expertly developed in Flash, it's a perfect blend of video, interactivity, information and... ummm .... fashion?

http://www.greatpockets.com/

MS "Surface" reognises T-mobile handset

Take a look at this article on Microsoft's new table-top "Surface" computer with something heading towards the "Minority Report" interface we all loved. Click on the video link on the right to see a Reuters video, and watch right to the end. There you'll see a very short clip of someone putting their mobile down on the table-top, and right where they put it, a T-mobile "My Favs" menu opens up around the phone. Now whether it can REALLY do that or if it was just a "smoke and mirrors" demo thing, that's pretty cool.

Nokia N95 a sweet ride

This is far from a comprehensive review of the Nokia N95, but thought I had to say something about how great this phone seems to be! I received one today that we'll be using for a Flash Lite application we're developing, and it's a pretty darn sexy phone. The dual-direction sliding screen doesn't feel to weak as other slider phones have in the past, and the screen itself is great. Having the standard headphone jack - it's about freakin' time! I'll try and post some more feedback on the device as we get further into our project, but for any phone freak thinking about upgrading or getting into one of these, go for it.

Hutchison triggers 3G price war

I blogged about this a little while ago, but the reality is finally coming to our shores - capped mobile data plans. Thanks to Hutchison, the telco market here is going to go into a spin trying to compete with mobile data rates ... when someone's paying $15/Mb on Telstra, how will they feel when their mate is only paying $30/month for 1Gb on Hutshison?

The new 3 service, called X-Series, has three levels of flat-rate pricing
starting at $20 monthly for 500MB of data, followed by a $30 monthly 1GB plan
and finishing with a 2GB plan for $40 monthly.

Thank God!

Article on Wharton - Steve Jobs' Most Recent Vision for the Future: A World without DRM

An interesting article over at Wharton on the debate that Steve Jobs has brought attention to - to DRM or not to DRM. While related mainly to music, I think it's relevant for Flash Lite / mobile content developers who encounter this in their business. Is it the shadow of the "free for all" web being cast over an industry (mobile /.electronic content) that has pretty much been locked down and user-pays from the start? Time will tell ...

New Flash Lite News

'Tis the season for new announcements! Don't you love it when a big conference rolls around and all the big boys who have been saving up their fireworks let them all out of the bag. Well 3GSM has started with a bang, with the announcemnt first of Flash Lite 3. The new release is centered around the support for FLV - Flash Video. This means that your FL content will be ableto work in with Flash Media Server and other streaming services, plus leverage the massive amount of FLV content that is in the market these days (anyone heard of a little site called YouTube?).

Flash Home is the other "product" that was unveiled - a customisable Flash Lite home screen for your device. This is a white label product that is pitched for carriers, MVNO's, etc. Some of the key features are:

• Flexible, data-enabled home screens
• On-device catalog for easy discovery, preview, and management of home screens
• Support for rich media, including FLV files, text, audio, and vector graphics
• Over-the-air updates of branded user interfaces
• Extensible architecture
• Powerful mobile authoring capabilities

I'm sure there'll be more coming soon! Stay tuned party people ...

Bond's mobile of choice

Saw the new "Casino Royale" 007 movie last night with my mate Dan ... and while not being a Bond-ophile, I have enjoyed quite a few of them over the years (enough to know that Sean Connery will always be the ultimate Bond!). Daniel Craig was a very good choice I think, but the choice I noticed (and this is my geek side coming out) was MI6's choice of Sony products :) In particular the K800 Sony Ericsson mobile Mr Bond was carrying.

You don't have to be a mobile developer to know that the app he was running on his phone (that mirrored the exact same functionality on his VAIO laptop) could be for real, but I'm sure it's not far off. You know what people say about life imitating art ... perhaps the next Bond installment will have James playing a casual game of the latest Flash Lite game while waiting for this martini (maybe of he uses Nokia next time :)

Are the garden walls starting to crumble?

It's been one of the main gripes against telcos (at least here in Australia) - that the walled garden approach to controlling the customer is too restrictive and has hampered the uptaked of mobile content and services. So too has been the over pricing of these services in am emerging market where lower consumer costs might have helped the small number of 3G users actually try and get more from their devices.

But it seems that at least one Aussie telco is starting to move towards a more open and competitive mobile playing field.

It's long been the opinion of many of my colleagues that once the walled garden approach to customer control .. uh .. relationship management .. comes down, then we'll really start to see some of the promise of the 3G networks realised. I'm sure there are plenty of Flash Lite developers out there who would like to see the carrier cut out of things a little more, since they're reticence to adopt the Flash Lite platform has been a major hurdle to the development of the next generation of Flash mobile applications.

Time will tell of course, but perhaps we're moving in the right direction. Read more here