Web Video Goes Mobile with Flash Lite

Adobe announced Monday that Adobe Flash Lite 3, scheduled for release in the first half of 2007, will include the capability to watch videos, bringing all the main features of Adobe Flash Player to mobile devices equipped with the software.

Flash Lite runs on numerous platforms: Symbian S60 v2/v3, Qualcomm BREW 2.x/3.x and Microsoft Windows Mobile 5, and a variety of OEMs. There have been more than 200 million Flash-enabled devices shipped worldwide, and with a community of over one million designers and developers, expect a variety of new applications specifically tailored to the mobile user this year

YouTube and MySpace, both prominently featuring video content in Flash, are the two sites for whom many would think this functionality is designed. However, Adobe's partnership with Viacom has brought about an explosion of Flash content coinciding with this software release, perhaps suggesting otherwise.

Adobe has been working closely with Viacom since last summer, and streaming Flash content of television programs has appeared on sites such as comedycentral.com and MTV.com. Even a series of mini games based on Viacom's shows have been built in the Flash Lite environment.

MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom, includes over 130 channels such as: CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, Mtv, VH1, Nickelodeon, and SpikeTV. Content from many of these channels will be delivered via FlashCast, Adobe's client-server solution. Already available are the VH1 Best Week Ever blog, Logo's NewNowNext blog and Comedy Central's "What's Your Sign?" horoscope and "Booty Call" pickup line generator.

The mobile division of MTV Networks publishes more than 600 clips and 30 hours of video per month in the United States across all major wireless carriers, all of which would be available for Flash Lite 3 enabled phones The company is seeking to make its content available to as many users, on as many unique screens, as possible.