At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Adobe officially rolled out a public beta of Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 Distributable Player, a new over-the-air mobile runtime for Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile devices that enables them to display Flash content. Version 3.1 enables developers to deliver Flash-based applications to mobile users via the Web, boosting developers’ abilities to get applications into mobile users’ hands, as well as mobile application aggregators like Zed, ThumbPlay, and GetJar.
“The Distributable Player enables a direct distribution of our mobile player similar to the distribution model for Flash Player on the desktop,” said Adobe Platform Business Unit general manager and VP David Wadhwani, in a statement. “With this new runtime and Adobe’s popular authoring tools, Adobe Flash Platform developers can unleash their creativity, develop new, innovative games and other mobile applications, and reach a much broader audience across screens and different platforms.”
Flash Lite 3.1 targets S60 and Windows Mobile devices…but the question on everyone’s lips was whether Adobe planned to roll out Flash for the iPhone. The company said there was nothing new to report—Adobe is working on it, but doesn’t expect to announce anything soon. Adobe also didn’t offer any details of a version of Flash Lite for Google’s Android platform, but the company has previously indicated it plans to support Android.
The new Distributable Player is also a step in Adobe’s participate in the Open Screen Project, an industry coalition aimed at offering a consistent rich media experience across mobile devices…all, of course, powered by Adobe tools and technologies. Adobe and Nokia just announced they’re putting $10 million into the project to help developers get a leg up, and Palm has also announced its support (PDF) for the Open Screen Project in its forthcoming webOS.
