You know I have been a fan of Macromedia for a long time. And I still am. But something is perplexing me. We all saw Flash take a hit as a result of the multimedia overdose that hit the web years back. Fortunately the folks at Macromedia are on top of it, and have cleverly repositioned Flash in mobile entertainment.
But, speaking as the new owner of a Windows Mobile device, I have complaints. Yes Flash works perfectly on my device, but there is a huge lack of content. I want to download Flash games and front-ends for web services (like weather forecasts) but there’s almost nothing out there.
Handheld folks are a tight community - and that’s how you make them into loyal users. Apart from Windows Media, there really isn’t much along the lines of multimedia polish to Windows Mobile. And with SmartPhones and wireless handhelds there is a market for internet services adapted for the small screen - something Flash does very well.
Besides the lack of community and content around mobile Flash, I am also perplexed that Macromedia hasn’t created a version of Central for Windows Mobile. A container for running the small, Flash-based applications actually makes sense for handhelds (much more so than for desktops). Adapting Central for handhelds would be an interesting opportunity to create a user base. Of course you’d need more than four applications.
I’d really like to sum up this post, but it is up to the folks in San Francisco. Killer applications are fun, but you are not going to get traction without community support and content.
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July 31st, 2005 at 1:51 pm
Hello,
if you are lookingfor Flash Lite content there are planty already and more to come.
Here is my applicatio Kero:
http://www.biskero.com and you can get more infos in my blog: http://www.biskero.org
Also for the Flash Lite community there is a very active Flash Lite Yahoo group.
Alessandro
August 1st, 2005 at 2:02 am
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