« Two augmented-reality projects | Main | MLB.com 2008 »
March 15, 2008
Flex is The Web!?
Flex is The Web!? I learned something new yesterday, then later had a very strange chain of thought. I already knew the Adobe Flash Lite runtime has been extremely successful as a standalone application viewer on mobile devices. I also knew that an increasing number of devices were also using it for their native interface. But what I didn't know, and what that DevNet PDF above shows, is that Adobe Flash Lite 3 can also be used as a browser plugin for a mobile browser. Three ways to use it, and the last makes "Mobile Web" a practical reality. The Nokia Internet Tablet was the first device I saw that solved this "Flash within a mobile browser" problem, and the argument "but it can't play Flash!" has been one of the biggest knocks against Apple's iPhone. Anyway, Flash Lite 3 can run inside a mobile browser, that's the part I should have known, but didn't -- you can use FL3 as a standalone shell, a UI layer, or browser plugin. But now comes the "strange chain of thought", once I started thinking about the recent ruckus over iPhone capabilities. Assuming the reporting was accurate (I haven't seen a transcript, but have seen other meeting participants raise questions), then I had guessed that the reason Adobe Flash Lite was "not suited" to the iPhone was because it couldn't offer "mobile web", and would not help the browser render the world's existing webpages. But it seems it can! Adobe Flash Lite 3 does function as a regular plugin to mobile browsers, just as in the laptop surfing model. So what else could make it "need something much better than the current Flash player that Adobe makes for cellphones"? The next big difference is ActionScript 3, used by Adobe Flex 2 and Flex 3 -- Flash Lite 3 can support SWF8 files, and does not match the minimum requirement of Adobe Flash Player 9 for current Flex work. So is that it? The reason the iPhone doesn't render SWF is because of the lack of support for Flex applications? That would seem very strange to me, but that's where the evidence, at least from that one DowJones reporter, points. Strange thoughts aside, it's important that the mobile profile of Adobe Flash Player 8 does already run in web browsers... significant implications to that!
Nota bene to adbloggers: Please don't run with this, there's no story here, other than half-a-billion devices already with Flash Lite capabilities are now being joined by fully mobileweb-capable devices. They just can't play Flex 3 work yet, that's all, but we're working on it.... ;-)
Posted by JohnDowdell at March 15, 2008 11:17 AM