In related news Amazon is believed to be preparing an app store of it’s own, catering to Android users.

Flash Player 10.1 is supported on devices based on Android, BlackBerry, webOS, future versions of Windows Phone, LiMo, MeeGo and Symbian OS

US software vendor Adobe has released the latest version of its mobile platform, Flash Player 10.1, in a move that draws clear battle-lines between different approaches to creating and selling smartphone content.

Apple has prevented Adobe software from running on its iOS platform, which powers iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices, and Adobe will be hoping that momentum gathers behind its latest Flash release to undermine Apple’s walled-garden approach to content and also its favor among developers.

Flash is popular among developers, but Apple says the software slows down its operating systems and is a drain on battery life. Because Apple doesn’t support Flash, any website that features Flash content can’t be accessed on iOS-based devices.

Flash Player 10.1 will be available as a final production release for smart phones and tablets once users are able to upgrade to Android 2.2 “Froyo.” Flash Player 10.1 was also released to mobile platform partners to be supported on devices based on Android, BlackBerry, webOS, future versions of Windows Phone, LiMo, MeeGo and Symbian OS, and is expected to be made available via over-the-air downloads and to be pre-installed on smart phones, tablets and other devices in the coming months.

Adobe will be hoping that support for Flash 10.1 will be strong enough to undermine Apple’s dominance in the smartphone application space.

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Adobe is moving away from Apple platforms

Kevin Lynch, the chief technical officer of software developer Adobe, has posted a terse response to the criticism levelled at Flash technology by Apple chief Steve Jobs last week.

Given the now notorious legal terms Apple has imposed upon its developer community, Lynch said that Adobe has decided to shift its focus away from the iPhone and iPad devices for both Flash Player and Air.

Instead, Adobe will focus on developing products for all the other major participants in the mobile ecosystem, namely, Google, RIM, Palm/HP, Microsoft, and Nokia as well as others.

“The primary issue at hand is that Apple is choosing to block Adobe’s widely used runtimes as well as a variety of technologies from other providers,” Lynch said.

Adobe said that it plans to deliver Flash Player 10.1 for Android as a public preview at Google I/O in May, and then a general release in June. Check out this video of Flash Player running on Android from Mobile World Congress in February 2010.

Developers have created over 5,000 apps specifically for the iPad, although the device will run almost all of the more than 200,000 apps on the App Store.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Flash is increasingly seen as an essential part of the web experience, and as you can see from the video, Android users get the full Flash experience. Yet the technology’s absence on the iPhone’s spec sheet has been duly noted.

Doherty told telecoms.com: “We have done a lot of work to build Flash Player for the iPhone, but Apple at this time haven’t decided to have Flash on the iPhone. We encourage them and have demonstrated that it works really well on other platforms and at some point in time the apple user base will start demanding the full internet.

“Today 70 per cent of games on the web are Flash based and 75 per cent of video is played back through Flash Player. Apple just seems to want to have some control over their ecosystem and effectively tax their developers. But our business model is about selling tools and enabling our developer customers and content providers to get access to consumers and that’s why they use Flash because it allows them to do that in a consistent manner across all screens.”

Doherty said he believes the pressure will build on Apple and force it ultimately to support Flash on the iPhone. “Recently seven million or so iPhone users have actually come to our player download centre to download Flash Player because they didn’t know it wasn’t available. So now we have a special page up telling these visitors that Apple is restricting open technologies like Flash,” he said.

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The Motorola Backflip

US vendor Motorola is set to beef up the arsenal available to its Android-based devices by bringing Adobe’s Flash Player to the platform.

Working in conjunction with Adobe, as part of the Open Screen Project, Motorola is helping to develop Flash Player 10.1 so it works on Android. Integration of Flash browser extensions in Motorola’s Android devices is expected in the first half of 2010.

Motorola said it will be deploying the full Flash Player broadly across its Android product portfolio going forward and will also release Flash Player updates for existing devices such as the Droid once Adobe releases the software.

Flash is increasingly seen as an essential part of the web experience, and Flash Player 10.1 has been designed to work on smartphones, smartbooks and netbooks as well as PCs and other internet-connected devices to extend this experience. Yet its absence has been a persistent blight on the iPhone’s spec sheet.

The closest the iPhone will get to Flash is as a native application rather than the in-browser player. Developers will be able to use Flash Professional CS5 to export applications for the iPhone, but this only means they can create standalone applications that can be downloaded from the App Store and not incorporate Flash into websites for display in the iPhone’s Safari browser.

In other news, Motorola has announced another device in its Android lineup in the shape of the Backflip, which will be available in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia during the first quarter.

Trying hard to differentiate itself, Motorola has given the Backflip a “reverse clamshell design,” which means opening the phone up reveals a hard QWERTY keyboard with a trackpad on the back side, so users can navigate around the touchscreen without getting their fingers in the way.

Once again, Motorola has skinned the OS in its own style with the interface known as MotoBlur that focuses on social networking and streams all contacts, posts, messages and photos from sources such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Gmail in once place on the home screen.

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This week it was the turn of the firm’s optical networking and carrier Ethernet assets, sliced off and plated up for Ciena, which may or may not have swallowed nervously when presented with a bill for $390m in cash and ten million shares of Ciena common stock estimated to be worth a further $131m.

Gary Smith, Ciena’s CEO and president, said he believes the transaction will position the firm for faster growth through greater geographic reach and a deeper portfolio of solutions. The company intends to make employment offers to at least 2,000 Nortel employees under the deal, with Ciena expecting to incur integration-related costs of approximately $180m.

As with Nortel’s other sales, this proposed transaction is subject to a competitive bidding process and requires the approval of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Ciena expects hearings before these courts to be held within the next several weeks.

Another of Adams’ many memorable creations, of course, was Marvin the paranoid android. We have no news of him this week, but his namesake operating system has continued to grab the headlines. (That’s Google’s Android, by the way, not a new OS called Marvin.)

First up was the announcement that US carrier and Vodafone-Verizon progeny Verizon Wireless has struck a deal with Google that will see the two firms collaborate on a variety of services for the platform and a number of Android devices that will be pre-loaded with applications from both companies as well as third party developers. This isn’t one of those deals that stretches into the far blue yonder, either. The pair have clearly been beavering away for some time as Verizon promised to unveil the first of its new phones inside a couple of weeks.

We don’t yet know the manufacturers involved but there’s one more possibility this week than there was last week, with the report in the WSJ this week that PC vendor Dell is developing an Android handset for Verizon’s US competitor AT&T. Such an announcement has been expected for some time, since Dell nabbed Ron Garriques, head of Motorola’s handset unit, in 2007. This summer, Garriques confirmed that the firm has been working with carriers to provide hardware solutions, suggesting that carriers have “massive needs that are not being met,” by the current raft of terminal providers.

AT&T is better known as the first provider of the iPhone than as an Android peddler and this week the carrier graciously cleared the way for previously outlawed VoIP applications to run on the Apple product. iPhone VoIP applications had hitherto been allowed only over wifi, despite the fact that other handsets offered by AT&T have been VoIP enabled for use on the cellular network.

Commenting on the move, Josh Silverman, president of internet telephony firm Skype, said: “Since launching our iPhone application six months ago, consumers have downloaded and installed Skype on 10 per cent of all iPhone and iPod touch devices sold. This clearly demonstrates that our customers are extremely interested in taking Skype conversations with them on the go on the iPhone.”

He wasn’t interested in letting it lie though. “Nonetheless, the positive actions of one company are no substitute for a government policy that protects openness and benefits consumers and we look forward to further innovations that will enable even more mobile Skype calling.”

Where Skype goes, Adobe would like to follow with its Flash platform. But so far, because of the depth of involvement with the iPhone’s innards that would be required, it has been kept off the iconic handset. Now, though it looks as if a sort of fix has been found, with Flash arriving on the phone as a native application rather than an in-browser player.

At Adobe Max, the company’s worldwide developer conference, taking place in Los Angeles this week, the firm gave a sneak preview of how developers can use Flash Professional CS5 to export applications for the iPhone. This does not mean that website designers can incorporate Flash into their sites for display in the iPhone’s Safari browser. Instead, developers can create standalone applications built in Flash that can be downloaded from the App Store.

Other devices fared better. On Monday, Adobe announced plans for a full fledged Flash player for mobile devices. Flash Player 10.1 is designed to work on smartphones, smartbooks and netbooks as well as PCs and other internet-connected devices. A public developer beta of the browser-based runtime is expected to be available for Windows Mobile and Palm webOS later this year, while public betas for Google Android and Symbian are expected to be available in early 2010.

Sticking with Windows, the first handsets based on version 6.5 of the mobile version of Microsoft’s OS were announced this week. HTC and ZTE were at the top of the list, with the Taiwanese vendor launching the HD2, the first Windows handset to sport its in-house Sense UI, previously seen on Android phones. Chinese vendor ZTE, meanwhile, announced two Windows Mobile 6.5 devices to be launched on TMN’s network in Portugal.

Now we’re going to take a little break. The Informer would like you to imagine wriggling your toes on white sandy beaches, considering the prospect of a dip in a crystal clear aqua sea warmed by tropical rays so it feels like a relaxing bath. A chilled beverage is within reach and all is at peace. That’s right, it’s A Week In Wireless-in-the-Sun, a new, possibly never to be repeated feature, bringing you news from places you’d rather be. First up, Jamaica, where Cable & Wireless has announced a network expansion. Here, have a rum punch and turn up the Marley. “Don’t worry, about a thing, ’cause every little thing’s gonna be alright….” Mmmmm, that’s nice. And now over to Mozambique, where the G is about to launch a tender for the country’s third mobile licence, having calmed the objections of the two incumbents. Now, let’s grab a cold beer and go catch us some Marlin. It doesn’t get much better than this, readers. Feel that lovely sunshine.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee… Bump!

Where are we? Quick, duck!! Cripes, what was that? Looks like it was the news that Motorola has won a deal in Iraq! How’s that for a contrast? Still, you’ve got to take what you can get, the Informer supposes.

Motorola said Tuesday that it has been awarded a managed services contract by Zain Iraq. Under the terms of the deal, Motorola will focus on improving Zain Iraq’s network performance, as well as operation and maintenance of the network and training for its technical support team, leaving Zain free to focus on its customers. Exact financial terms for the three year multi-million dollar contract were not released.

Sometimes it seems like bad things will never end, doesn’t it. But the Informer’s here to tell you that time is the greatest healer. Just ask Telenor and Altimo, protagonists in the most drawn-out, catty and tedious disputes about which the Informer has every been required to scribble. Until this week, news of hatchets being buried by these two firms would have made one think of very serious head wounds.

But Nordic operator Telenor and Russian conglomerate Altimo (Alfa Group) ended years of legal disputes on Monday with a plan to combine their common assets in Russia and Ukraine. The two companies have reached an agreement to combine their holdings in second-placed Russian operator VimpelCom and Ukrainian player Kyivstar into a new jointly-owned mobile telecoms operator, VimpelCom Ltd.

The united company will provide mobile services in Russia, Ukraine and other CIS countries, as well as Georgia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. As a result, the operators have agreed to suspend all their ongoing legal proceedings and take action to withdraw or settle them prior to the transaction being completed. The governance structure agreed for VimpelCom Ltd. is designed to significantly reduce the potential for new disputes between the shareholders, Telenor said.

So perhaps Mr Marley was right, after all.

Take care

The Informer

Adobe squeezes Flash onto iPhone but not in browser

So it looks like Adobe Flash will be coming to the Apple iPhone after all, but as a native application rather than the in-browser player.

At Adobe Max, the company’s worldwide developer conference, taking place in Los Angeles this week, the firm gave a sneak preview of how developers can use Flash Professional CS5 to export applications for the iPhone.

Note that this is not Flash Player, and does not mean that website designers can incorporate Flash into their sites for display in the iPhone’s Safari browser. Instead, developers can create standalone applications built in Flash that can be downloaded from the App Store.

“The Apple iPhone SDK license terms do not allow runtime interpreted code, so Adobe is not able to deliver Flash Player in Safari on the iPhone without support from Apple. Applications for the iPhone built with Adobe Flash Professional CS5 do not include any runtime interpreted code,” the company said.

A public beta of Flash Professional CS5 is expected to be available later this year but Adobe showcased a series of iPhone applications built using a beta version of Flash Professional CS5 that are already available in the App Store.

On Monday, Adobe announced plans for a full fledged Flash player for mobile devices. Flash Player 10.1 is designed to work on smartphones, smartbooks and netbooks as well as PCs and other internet-connected devices. A public developer beta of the browser-based runtime is expected to be available for Windows Mobile and Palm webOS later this year, while public betas for Google Android and Symbian are expected to be available in early 2010.

In addition, Adobe and Research In Motion (RIM) announced a joint collaboration to bring Flash to BlackBerry smartphones, while Google joined Adobe’s Open Screen Project initiative.

Flash - saviour of the mobile universe?

Software firm Adobe announced plans for a full fledged Flash player for mobile devices on Monday, although there is still no sign of a break in the deadlock between it and Apple.

Flash Player 10.1 is designed to work on smartphones, smartbooks and netbooks as well as PCs and other internet-connected devices. A public developer beta of the browser-based runtime is expected to be available for Windows Mobile and Palm webOS later this year, while public betas for Google Android and Symbian are expected to be available in early 2010.

In addition, Adobe and Research In Motion (RIM) announced a joint collaboration to bring Flash to BlackBerry smartphones, while Google joined Adobe’s Open Screen Project initiative.

The Open Screen Project, which numbers almost 50 industry players among its member base, was established to develop a consistent runtime environment that works across mobile phones, desktops and other consumer electronic devices. Flash Player 10.1 is the first consistent runtime release of the Project and claims to allow designers and developers to reuse code and assets and reduce the cost of creating, testing and deploying content across different operating systems and browsers.

Apple remains absent from the list of mobile device players working to get Flash onto their handsets, suggesting that Adobe and Apple are still at an impasse with regards to getting the software onto the iPhone.

The row over Flash on the iPhone was kicked off early in 2008 at an Apple shareholders meeting, when frontman Steve Jobs reportedly said that Flash was “too slow to be useful” on the iPhone and Flash Lite was “not capable of being used with the web”. The absence of Flash on the iPhone has been criticised as one of the device’s main failings. The vast majority of video available on the internet is encoded in Flash, and although Apple struck a deal with YouTube to get the popular video sharing site onto the iPhone, users have still been locked out of a boatload of content.

YouTube itself uses Flash, and in order to get onto the iPhone, it had to re-encode all its videos in an iPhone friendly format. The constraints of Apple’s SDK licence for the iPhone have caused a number of big name companies to come unstuck besides Adobe. Notable are Sun and SAP, which pledged to bring Java and SAP respectively to the iPhone, only to find it would have broken Apple’s licensing conditions, which don’t allow for the level of integration these applications need.

It is thought that Adobe has developed a Flash player for the iPhone, but unless Apple gives it the green light, it’s not going anywhere, as the App Store is the only (official) channel to market.

“With Flash Player moving to new mobile platforms, users will be able to experience virtually all Flash technology based Web content and applications wherever they are,” said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the platform business unit at Adobe. “We are excited about the broad collaboration of close to 50 industry leaders in the Open Screen Project and the ongoing collaboration with 19 out of the top 20 handset manufacturers worldwide. It will be great to see first devices ship with full Flash Player in the first half of next year.”

On2 compresses video to send it over mobile networks

Web giant Google has snapped up video compression firm On2 Technologies for a total of $106.5m in a stock for stock transaction.

The acquisition will add yet another string to Google’s bow in the mobile space, as On2 specialises in technology used for shifting large video files across narrowband networks, and already has a number of customers in the mobile arena as well as the fixed line market.

On2 customers include Adobe, Skype, Nokia, Sun Microsystems and Sony.

“Today video is an essential part of the web experience, and we believe high-quality video compression technology should be a part of the web platform,” said Sundar Pichai, vice president, product management, Google.

The firm develops codecs which compress video files at one end and then decompress them on the end users’ device, to decrease bandwidth usage while keeping quality up. It’s known that Adobe uses some of the technology in its Flash platform, which Google’s YouTube uses to stream video, so it might be that Google is looking to further optimise the popular video sharing site’s platform.

But Google is also making headway into all sorts of areas with its other projects – there is the Chrome operating system for PCs and portable internet devices, as well as the Android mobile device platform, which now has designs on media centre type devices.