Michael Dolan Dot Com

Friday, November 14th, 2008

Will we finally see a broader implementation of open, mobile platform?

I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony in the topics this Register article touches on, but a couple points struck me as particularly important.

Adobe, yes Adobe, is now proposing an open platform (built on a mobile version of Air) that would run applications from any carrier’s platform (albeit all those, closed). Now I’m intrigued. Will we finally see a shift from closed, single carrier channels to open if carriers adopt this strategy? And will Adobe of all companies actually lead the way?

Note, this does not mean the applications themselves or the governance of the channels by the carriers would be open, but at least the platform they run applications on could be. This would be a major change in an industry thus far plagued by closed, private and a thousand “one-off” generation implementations. Heck, even Linux mobile adoptions have been “one offs”.

I suspect the challenge here will come in testing these applications across an amazing number of devices and revisions, but if Adobe can replicate its strong Flash success on mobile platforms, perhaps we won’t be stuck in a Silverlight world ;-)

Meanwhile, Adobe is set to follow rival Apple into the mobile apps game, but is seeking to provide a common platform that will be supported across stores from many operators and vendors, rather than creating its own portal. The Flash maker, whose dominance of mobile video streaming is dented by Apple’s refusal to support the technology on the iPhone, will launch a mobile version of its Air product next year.

This will allow the same application to run across many cellphones, unlike its current mobile product, Flash Lite, which varies in implementation between different platforms. Kevin Lynch, Adobe’s CTO, said at Web 2.0: “Of all the technologies on mobile phones, none of them has more than a 50 per cent reach. As a developer, you have to implement your content about 400 times right now. That is a complete mess.”

Another point of interest is Adobe’s royalty free proposal. Adobe … will incent implementers to redistribute their implementations back? Adobe has seriously evolved its attitude… for the better.

For companies that agree to keep their implementations of Air open, so apps can be used from any online site, not just designated store, Adobe will eliminate royalties.