Microsoft licenses Flash Lite from Adobe for mobile phones

“What wasn’t good enough for Steve Jobs seems just fine for Microsoft, as it takes this opportunity to embed a version of Adobe’s streaming video technology into its future mobile Web browsers, right alongside Adobe’s rival Silverlight,” Scott M. Fulton reports for BetaNews.

MacDailyNews Take: What else is new? “Good enough” (even when it isn’t) is Microsoft’s mantra. Apple doesn’t settle for “good enough.”

Fulton continues, “”More and more, Microsoft is making a very visible effort to play nice, or at least nicer, by making room for its rivals alongside its own technology. This morning, it let Adobe hail the latest move rather than horde the megaphone, announcing that Adobe is licensing its Flash Lite mobile graphics platform to Microsoft for use, apparently, in a future mobile Web browser.”

Full article here.

34 Comments

  1. And why didn’t Microsoft make the announcement itself? Because it’s no big deal.

    Not having Flash on my iPhone is somewhat annoying, simply because so many websites use it. But so do an awful lot of ads, so I don’t have to see those either. And Flash takes long enough to download to my desktop/laptop, so I don’t even want to try navigating a bunch of Flash sites on my iPhone.

  2. Wish the iPhone would just convert swf formats into H.264 behind the scenes and play them…no user interaction required. Ball and chain or not, our company did its web site with the content area playing swf files using yes, Keynote and Imageready exports…everybody already has a browser that will play flash, so it becomes the default, like it or not.

  3. Flash Lite is nearly useless from what I’ve read. What is it for? It apparently doesn’t allow you to view Flash 9 content and everything out there is always asking you to upgrade to the latest version. So what gives?

    Are there Flash Lite websites? A lot of sites with Flash 8 still?

  4. Flash Lite will enable M$ OS phones, and customers, to enjoy streaming advertisements. Now all M$ needs is away to steer their customers to specific sites so M$ can make ad revenue. That’s about all Flash Lite is good for.

  5. the iphone SERIOUSLY lacks in video and media play back ability. SERIOUSLY. Only thing you can watch is people putting firecrackers up their noses on youtube.

    Apple needs to stfu about problems with Flash and just let Adobe do their thing.

    I want to see and hear WMV as well. It’s stupid that I cannot.

  6. @”Dud CD” and “theloniousMac”

    The reason why the iPhone plays back only certain, non-proprietary formats, is because because playback for those specific formats is heavily hardware accelerated, to help prolong the iPhone’s battery life and conserve its processing power.

    Rather the iPhone wasting its time converting video codecs back and forth, it requires those formats up front. This has the end result of providing longer battery life and a better overall user experience. And as a side-effect, it forces websites to use non-proprietary formats for their media. A short-term hassle for the long-term greater good.

    MW “lower”: as in, what Apple isn’t willing to do with their standards.

  7. Okay, let me get this straight – an operating system is licensing a user interface technology from a document-centric software company?

    Um, did the last intellectual property guy turn out the lights when he left?

    This is consistent with the Ballmer era – why bother to invent anything, just buy it. Keep up the good work, Steve.

  8. They certainly make a beautiful couple. I’m just a little scared about how their children will turn out.

    Oh, what’s that you say? They’ve been neutered years ago? Whew! That was a close one. That gene pool didn’t need a lifeguard, it just needed a little vasectomy.

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