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Microsoft Accepts Flash For Windows Mobile

Posted by kdawson on from the embrace-is-the-first-step dept.

Ian Lamont writes "Despite Microsoft's aim to take on Adobe Flash with Silverlight, the company has decided to support Flash on Windows Mobile devices. Microsoft has also licensed the Adobe Reader LE software, so owners of Windows Mobile devices will be able to view PDFs. The two companies are working together on integration and OEM distribution, but Microsoft is still mum on when consumers will be able to use Flash or Silverlight on their Windows Mobile phones. The article points out that Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and LG already support Flash, but only Nokia has announced Silverlight support, and only on some models starting later this year. The other major handset maker — Apple — doesn't support Flash on the iPhone and has no plans to do so in the near future."

5 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Replace Flash/Silverlight by an open standard by Adaptux · · Score: 1, Interesting

    What will it take to replace both Flash and Silverlight by a genuinely open standard (that has a Free Software implementation)?

  2. What do you expect? by l2718 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Not implementing the industry standard while putting in their own competing product would have serious anti-trust implications.

  3. Re:Free implementations exist by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Free Software" suggests there are no patent traps to be concerned about, and that's certainly not true with anything involving Mono.

  4. I've had flash and PDF for years now by Timothy+Chu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Hmmm...don't know why this is news:

    Flash: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer_pocketpc/downloads/player.html

    PDF: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrppcdload.html

    I've had these installed since 2005.

    Note that some flash videos like youtube videos, won't run in this implementation of Flash (so perhaps the article is referring to a version of Flash that *will* run streaming video). The widgets that web site designers tend to embed in their bloated websites do load for me with Windows Mobile 2003.

    The "news" part of this may be that it's MS supporting this, not Adobe as it currently is, which may mean a better implementation.

  5. Re:Free implementations exist by CRCulver · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The issue is that software patents stand against the ideals of Free Software. Stallman has long stood against software patents, and boycotted GIF and Amazon for years. Therefore, the implementation of Silverlight cannot be said to conform to the spirit of the Free Software movement. It's a free implementation, but it's not a Free one.