Adobe Open Screen Project, freedom!

Posted on May 1st, 2008 by admin.
Categories: Adobe, Flash Lite, FlashCast.

I know it’s been….months since I last posted, but I had to write about the Open Project news.

So, the gist of the story is this:

The Open Screen Project is working to enable a consistent runtime environment – taking advantage of Adobe® Flash® Player and, in the future, Adobe AIR™ — that will remove barriers for developers and designers as they publish content and applications across desktops and consumer devices…

This work includes:

* Removing restrictions on use of the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications

* Publishing the device porting layer APIs for Adobe Flash Player

* Publishing the Adobe Flash® Cast™ protocol and the AMF protocol for robust data services

* Removing licensing fees – making next major releases of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices free

That last bit about removing the licensing fees is HUGE. At Amp’d, the very costly fee structure for the mobile version of the flash player was a big hindrance to our project. I had to fight pretty hard to get the higher ups to eat the cost. Adjusting that fee structure will definitely help Adobe get more attention from companies in the mobile space.

The reaction to the news has been pretty swift. ZDNet has an interesting article on the news which mentions how this Open Screen Project may affect what everyone in the Flash community is waiting to see: Flash on the iPhone. The article makes an assertion that I’ve never heard before:

He[ZDNet's Ed Burnette] added that the performance of the Flash player speed on the Mac “sucks” when compared to Windows. “Apple might warm up to Flash, if Adobe paid a bit more attention to the Flash experience on Mac.”

That’s…interesting.

Anyways, here’s the link for Adobe’s Open Screen Project!

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