AndroidGuys

With last week’s announcement of the Open Screen Project, Adobe firmly entrenched themselves in the mobile device war. Are they late to join the fray or have they been quietly putting Flash in front of us for some time now? Does Adobe see Flash as a potential competitor to other mobile platforms like Android or could they be more of an ally? Our own Vamien McKalin wrote an op-ed piece regarding the challenges that face them as they fight for market share, relevancy, and developer adoption.

What Vamien said in his article was enough to elicit a response from an Adobe representative. And here we thought our traffic was only unapologetic Android fans and Apple haters. Rather than slapping on an update to the original article and possibly burying it, we thought we’d give him a dedicated spot. We’re always open to the other side of an argument here at AndroidGuys and definitely appreciate the feedback. Especially when it comes straight from the source!

Read what Mark Doherty, Manager, Developer Relations EMEA for Adobe Systems Europe Ltd had to say in response to “Adobe’s Flash for Mobile Has Tough Times Ahead.” When you’re finished, please stop by the FlashMobileBlog to read more about the Open Screen Project.

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I’ve just finished reading the article, “Adobe’s Flash for Mobile Has Difficult Times Ahead”. I’ve made some points in reply.

“Can Flash be a viable mobile platform for mobile devices?”

Flash technology has been added to mobile devices for five years resulting in well over 500m devices using Flash for their user interfaces, for widgets, web browsing, applications, games, wallpapers and screensavers.

In Japan on NTT Docomo’s network Flash Cast delivers content to mobile devices, to around 25m users. Flash Cast is to be deployed this year at Verizon, Telenor, Chungwa and we also have Flash Lite services in China.

We have Flash on the PSP, PS3, Wii, Chumby, mp3 players from iRiver, Samsung, its even on Airbus planes and Jaguar cars, Flash is verywhere. Most importantly for your article Flash technology will hopefully appear on Android, but this remains the decision of the manufacturer. Openness is a key driver for both Android and OSP, we share the same goals.

“Flash could have been a major player by now had it not been for Adobe’s incompetence”

I believe that Adobe have been cautious, prudent and taken moderate risks. This is exactly what you would expect from any large company with a body of shareholders. The reality is that Flash is a major player, you may have missed it because its not so obvious, we don’t have “Flash” appear every time its used for example. You only need to look at the OSP partners to see the scale of support that Flash garners as a technology. They and more than a million developers can’t be wrong right?

“While Adobe has been loafing around, Sun has been making inroads to further strengthen the position and usability of JavaME on mobile phones.”

Compatibility of technologies and the reduction of fragmentation is a good thing; we support any company that’s willing to work at this. Sony Ericsson have just announcement the Capuchin project to enable Flash Lite to gain access to Java APIs. This is a signal that they too realise the value of opening their platform for developers, and more specifically for Flash developers.

“Many may stress that the reason why Flash has been so slow to take off on mobile is the fact that the overall capability of mobile devices has been slow to develop. I agree with that to a degree. You can’t fault slow mobile development in general. Adobe is part to blame. Sun has the same problems facing them with mobiles, yet Java has done well. What say you Adobe?”

The difference in our approach is that Adobe will not approach distribution as Sun did. Everyday I hear painful stories from developers doing multiple ports for Java on devices, but it’s getting better. The OSP will ensure that Flash is widely distributed and that each implementation runs Flash as specified. Java too, with the MSA JSR have put the right steps in place to reduce fragmentation and we support that. Capuchin from Sony Ericsson builds on that consistency.

“There’s a lot of work to do before it is even considered as the choice over the likes of JavaME and other offerings such as Google’s Android version of Java. Now things could be completely different however if Google becomes a Member of the Open Screen Project.”

It is true that Java is the developers’ choice right now, but I believe that more options are better and developers tell us that they would prefer any technology that provides cross-platform consistency. On the desktop Adobe AIR has enabled a developer community to create desktop applications for Windows, Mac and Linux computers. Google would be most welcome to join the project and show support for open access to deliver content and services to devices, again we share the same goals. This is obviously a joint goal that we have were desktop and mobile are blurring platforms and the more companies that share this vision the better. Check out the Google Analytics AIR application for example, or the Adobe Media Player and Photoshop Express which are fantastic examples of cross-platform development. Now imagine bringing those to mobile devices and that’s our goal in the OSP.

“Linux/Open Source developers may still stay away from Flash as it is proprietary software.”

That is true, but now that we have released the specifications for the SWF, PDF, FLV and F4V formats, and the virtual machine (and mobile branch) are open source, it is now possible for anyone to build their own SWF player. With the announcement of the OSP we are responding to the community asking for more openness, we might even see some interesting new 3rd Party tools.