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Tim Culpan

Strategy aims to put Lite version of program into handsets but industry acceptance may be hard to achieve

If content is king, then the content platform may well become the next king-maker in the region's emerging mobile content industry.

With price competition in the mobile phone business relentlessly undermining profit margins on voice calls, service providers are eager to increase the appeal of their other offerings.

But while this has led to plenty of mobile content on the market, none of it is compelling enough to make customers part with their money.

The word 'compelling' has become a catchword for those pushing their offerings.

At a two-day conference in Taipei last week, Macromedia executives trotted out the word often to explain why their mobile version of 'Flash', called Flash Lite, would make the mobile experience more compelling.

Flash Lite is to mobile phones what Flash is to websites. It is rich, cool and sleek.  A two minute demo of Flash Lite on a Nokia 7610 handset revealed immediately what can be accomplished.

The content itself - weather forecasts and news bulletins - wasn't mind-blowing, but the vividness of the graphics and the smoothness of the animation did jazz it up.

'It's the content users are used to seeing on the desktop,' said Brad Auerbach,  senior director of programming for mobile and devices at Macromedia.

Well, not quite.

No one truly believes you will ever get the same content on a two-inch mobile phone display as you would  on a 17-inch desktop display with a broadband internet connection.

Macromedia is a latecomer to the mobile scene.

Nevertheless, the company that brought you Flash and Cold Fusion has finally decided to embrace the next big content sector.

The company's strategy is not altogether clear though, particularly  when it comes to  China, where there is not only a large demand for mobile phones but the lion's share of handsets are produced.

To date, 17.2 million mobile phones worldwide are Flash- enabled.

However, all but a few hundred thousand of these are in Japan. Deals with NTT DoCoMo,  founder of the i-Mode platform, and a handful of other operators, have helped Macromedia build some credibility.

Elsewhere though, it is slow going, despite the positive spin by company executives.

'In the next 12 months, over 50 per cent of new handsets shipped will have enough memory for Flash,' said Anup Murarka, senior director of marketing for mobiles at DoCoMo.

That does not mean they will have Flash, merely enough memory for it.

Flash Lite requires 350 kilobytes of flash memory for its core code and 500Kb to a megabyte of working Ram,  and mobile phones are shipping with more and more flash memory.

Macromedia's  China strategy so far revolves around trying to convince manufacturers to build Flash into their handsets, and running a competition for budding Flash Lite developers.

Executives baulked when asked about the  China market and the company's strategy for the region.

Despite what looks like a good technology, industry acceptance will be hard to achieve, given the experience of other technologies.

'We don't have plans to do any Flash applications right now,' said Sky Lin,  president of Taiwan mobile application maker JoyMaster.

Mr Lin estimated that more than 80 per cent of handsets shipped with Java, making Flash an uncompelling option for content developers.

JoyMaster has already developed more than a dozen different Java games and applications which are being shipped with handsets from makers such as BenQ, Nokia and Asus.

Flash, Mr Lin said, did not even enter the picture.

Many developers believe Java provides enough richness and flexibility to satisfy demand. Although the platform is relatively simple and ubiquitous, its developers face many hurdles, the biggest  being customer readiness and education.

Despite WAP (wireless application protocol) being around for years and the growing spread of Java, 'Not everybody knows 'Hey, I can do something with my handset',' Mr Lin noted.

Macromedia  is hoping consumers' familiarity with desktop Flash can be transferred to the mobile phone, setting the market alight.

'It's that ubiquity and across-the-board acceptance that we're hoping for,' Mr Auerbach said.



Macromedia has a flash of inspiration for mobile content