Sep
24
What is Macromedia FlashCast?
September 24, 2003 | 2 Comments
Macromedia unveiled a new technology/service at DemoMobile late last week. From what I can gather from this video, it’s name is FlashCast and it is a new framework for distributing Flash content to next generation phones. The idea is fairly similiar to BREW developed by Qualcomm. BREW utilizes Java as it’s underlying technology.
The idea is pretty simple and also fairly similiar to Macromedia Central for desktops. First, Flash Lite is used as the rich client environment for phones. Flash Lite is built on the Flash player just like Central – only is tailored for a device environment. Flash Lite is NOT the Flash plug-in for a browser flavor installed on a phone. Instead Flash Lite is a standalone application.
Second, Carriers will provide phones on their network with a shell application that is played in the Flash Lite player. This shell application acts as a portal to rich content (authored in SWF format). The application uses a channel paradigm just like a television. The user chooses a channel and is presented with what content is available for that channel. With FlashCast all of the content will be stored as SWF files on the carriers network. Once a SWF is choosen and comes down over the air to a phone it is stored in cache for offline viewing if needed.
Simiiliar content frameworks already exist for phones/carriers. As I mentioned above BREW provides a framework for viewing and downloading J2ME applications. Vodafone in Europe has Vodafone Live! which is more a portal for WAP content but is still similiar. DoCoMo has its own portal framework for content as well. I believe FlashCast has an advantage over WAP. I don’t completely dismiss WAP, it makes a lot of sense in some situations (i.e. blog reading), but Flash can just be so much more rich. WAP can be used on far more phones than Flash Lite, and this is the reason I am still developing a WAP portal system. Flash Lite requires the power of the newer smartphones hitting the market in the last year or so. So WAP and Flash Lite can’t be an apples to apples comparison.
J2ME makes sense for applications written for smaller, less powerful machines as well. But I see Flash Lite gaining some ground over J2ME. The engineers at Macromedia have made some great strides in porting Flash to the device environment. The biggest factor between BREW and FlashCast, I think, will be the number of developers – granted most Flash developers only develop desktop content. Still, desktop developers using Flash for devices should have a much more mild learning curve than that of Java developers developing for J2ME. More developers should mean more apps and content being developed and deployed in a shorter amount of time.
I think Macromedia has a great thing with FlashCast and I’ll be waiting anxiously to see who the first carrier will be to offer FlashCast to their network subscribers.
Comments
2 Comments so far
> BREW utilizes Java as it’s underlying technology…
BREW is a C/C++ API. It doesn’t have any ‘underlying technology’, nor does it have anything to do with Java.
Jason, you’re correct. Back in the day, my first assumption was that BREW was distributed as a J2ME app. Suppose it would be a bit different today if it were. Actually J2ME would be much different today if it were.