Are operators an obstacle to the adoption of Flash Lite ?

I read some studies indicate that technology adoption is affected by innovation influence such as usefulness, ease of use and self-efficacy.
This was one of the reason I decided to invest on Flash Lite and believe that it could be a "killer player" for mobiel devices.
During these months we had many dates with companies involved in the mobile market and with mobile operators.
We showed Flash Lite and its benefits in creating contents from a developer and user point of view.
We spent  many times in developing prototypes and documents to explain its advantages.
But for now we did not have many success with italian mobile operators.

So my final thoughts indicate me that Italian mobile operators love Flash Lite but at the same time they are scared about that.
They think that Flash Lite could tend to cut them out of the business of managing the contents and the device UIs in their domain.
In Italy, operators still make a lot of money with ringtones, sms data and java games.
They don't like an innovative technology like Flash Lite that is easy to use and that overcomes their control.

I hope to see things change when the penetration of Flash Lite will reach great numbers thanks to device manufacturers and Adobe agreements.
So, Adobe hurry up, we're waiting for you ;) !!!

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Comments

[Bryan Rieger]

Hey Marco,

Flash Lite has 2 big obstacles. OEMs and carriers. Adobe/Macromedia have actually done pretty well at getting some traction with OEMs such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, etc - but it still feels more like the OEMs are testing the waters rather than jumping right into shipping Flash Lite on their devices. In meetings I've had with OEMs most concerns with FL tend to be around 'yet another software license'. Opera has had the same problem with their mobile browser - hence Opera mini, and I'm sure Ikivo has similar issues with their SVG runtime.

As for carriers, they have HUGE investments in their networks and they don't want to become commoditized the way internet/broadband carriers have become with the likes of Google and Yahoo. They see themselves as the 'portals' (just like the old web portals) and will resist any change that threatens that position. If they can't monetize it - they don't want it on their networks. Stress should be on the words 'their networks'. As you said, they are making a ton of money on SMS, ringtones, games, etc - why introduce change that could threaten their captive market?

Also, carriers are somewhat suspect of having to deal with any additional support costs. I forget the exact numbers but I believe one support call on average cost the carrier about $8. Unless Flash Lite is something that they are shipping on the majority of their phones, and it's been through their support/vetting process it's unlikely a carrier would want to touch it.

While the Internet/web was born out of academia the mobile networks were born out of pure capitalism. Again, the mobile networks are 'their networks' - not ours, and apparently much of the spectrum is theirs as well.

FYI - there's a great interview with Bruce Chizen of Adobe on Wharton where he states regardiing Flash Lite "...if I have to make a trade-off between ubiquity and revenue -- as it relates to the mobile client business -- I'll got for ubiquity."

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&id=1399
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FWIW - the more I learn about the mobile industry the more I believe Adobe/Macromedia is doing all it can to get Flash Lite deployed (free licensing would be better - but development costs money). The hurdles in the mobile space are so much bigger than on the Internet. It's all going to come down to perceverence and taking the market one small win at a time.

One last thing, while carriers seem to be a bit of an uphill battle - I wonder if MVNO's might not be much more receptive to the benefits of Flash Lite?

Sincerely,

Bryan

[Alexander McCabe]

I'm a lot more interested in the development of Flash 6 on PSP. Mobile companies are interested in a) charging developers to deliver their content b) selling content to users. These concerns are going to stiffle Flash on mobile phones. Sony doesn't have the worry about losing a revenue stream (like mobile co's do with ringtones and music) so it'll be easy to make content (with tools), and easy to consume content (with wifi, or maybe wimax soon.)

[Bryan Rieger]

I really like the idea of Flash on the PSP, iRiver u10, etc - but these devices have marginal marketshare and very narrow demographics, so if you can make a business creating and 'selling' content over wifi/wimax networks to these devices more power to you! FWIW, casual games might be a possibility here - maybe a new opportunity for Shockwave.com?

Also, the current business models on broadband networks tend to revolve around serving ads - I'm not so sure that experience/business model will translate to small screen devices and browsers in any useful way.

The piece that seems to be missing for me on the broadband web is 'micropayments' - something the mobile space has already figured out. Moving to the mobile space without a revenue stream isn't something many businesses/content creators are going to bother with.

[Alexander McCabe]

The mobile operators are having great time selling micro content for not such micro payments. Actually I think the value they bring is not the content, so much as the convenience and network to deliver that micro content to mobile devices.
I think that party is going to wind down over the next few years - PSP encourages developers to make content, content encourages people to get PSP (or PSP-like device). Operators will charge for the network (for the wifi/wimax) but eventually the connection will unlimited access direct to the web from mobile. Mobile ops don't like that so much because it also means....ip telephony from mobile devices. Which really brings the party to an end.

[Allysson Lucca]

Ciao Marco,

I remember when I started to work with a friend, he is a Flash Developer here in Italy, it was about 1 year ago or more.
We also have tried to "sell" the idea making a lot fo demos and some presentations, we had the opportunity to develop a demo for the biggest mobile content provider in Rome, that day we though "nice, now we'll have a contract"
Nothing, the people were fascinated by the power of Flash on mobile, but provide flashlite applications were out of their plans.
I though the things could change in one year or more, but it seems they don’t.