For anyone that has had to set up a web site which streams video during the past year or so, the arrival of Adobe Flash 8.0 was something of a revolution, pushing back Microsoft Windows Media Player video into an undignified second place in video that plays on a PC. The arrival of a new version of Flash Lite for cellular handsets now threatens to do much the same for video on mobile devices.
Adobe said at last week’s 3GSM that support for video will be integrated in the next generation of Adobe Flash Lite software, available in the first half of 2007.
The video format is really a bit of a magic trick as it allows video to run streamed over the internet from any web site, and gets away from the fact that previously specially built streaming servers using RTP and Real Time Streaming Protocol had to be used, which put a lot of people off creating video on their site. The video itself is based around a fairly efficient video codec written by codec old timer On2 Technologies, which has had a new lease on life since Adobe licensed the product and it has branched out into a whole class of On2 Flash products called On2 Flix.
It’s hard to say how Adobe Flash videos will do on the handset. Mobile TV certainly doesn’t use this technology, and this is really for when the mobile web picks up speed and video comes on a free ride over a browser, but that can’t be too far away as many operators are now looking at flat rate broadband access to the handset.
Adobe says that television shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy are being delivered online through Flash video and the technology also powers video at sites such as YouTube and MySpace.
‘Video support in Flash Lite will revolutionize the way users engage with mobile content and open up new revenue opportunities for developers worldwide,’ said Al Ramadan, senior vice president for Mobile and Device Solutions at Adobe. ‘This release will allow users to view vibrant video content from popular Internet sites like YouTube or MySpace and enable developers to create new, dynamic applications across a variety of mobile and consumer electronics platforms.’
Flash Lite will support the same video formats supported by Adobe Flash Player and will directly support video streams delivered by the Adobe Flash Media Server.
The new Flash Lite will run on Symbian Series 60, Qualcomm Brew and Microsoft Windows Mobile, plus a variety of embedded operating systems.
Also at 3GSM Adobe said that the number of Flash enabled devices shipping worldwide has tripled since January 2006, to reach more than 200 million devices and that there are already more than 300 Flash enabled phones and consumer electronics devices and that FlashCast trials are under way in all major regions across the world.
‘Japan was the early adopter of mobile Flash technology, but today it is a worldwide phenomenon with some of the hottest mobile devices, like the LG Prada phone, relying on Flash to deliver compelling user experiences,’ said Al Ramadan, senior vice president, Mobile and Device Solutions Business Unit at Adobe.