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Microsoft Goes After Adobe with Nokia Deal

Posted Mar 04, 2008 10:09am EST by Dan Frommer in Networking and Communication, Software and Services, Products and Trends
Related: adbe, msft, nok
From Silicon Alley Insider, March 4, 2008:

 Microsoft is taking Adobe's Flash head-on in a huge market where its animation/video software hasn't caught on yet: Mobile phones.

Microsoft (MSFT) and Nokia (NOK) said today that they'll make Microsoft's Flash rival, "Silverlight," available for some Nokia/Symbian smartphones and Internet tablets later this year.

It's a big catch for Microsoft: Symbian is the market-leading smartphone operating system, with some 77 million devices sold worldwide last year. And it's just the beginning: A version of Silverlight for Microsoft's own Windows Mobile smartphones will come later this year. We imagine Microsoft will court other phone manufacturers and carriers, too, both of which are eager to get more customers using the mobile Web and mobile multimedia content.

Meanwhile, Adobe's (ADBE) mobile business sits in limbo. Flash has been a huge success on computers, but outside of Japan, it hasn't had much success on mobile phones.

Why not? Money. While Adobe gives its Flash plugin away to consumers for free on computers -- and Nokia smartphones, through a 2005 licensing deal -- it's tried to get mobile phone manufacturers and/or carriers to pay a license fee for each phone it's installed on. That's limited its market share, and peoples' interest in developing Flash content for phones -- and could help Microsoft's rival Silverlight catch on.

See Also: Adobe Flash Coming Soon To Apple iPhones?

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4 Comments

B
B - Tuesday March 04, 2008 10:26AM EST

great report

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R.V
R.V - Wednesday March 05, 2008 05:50PM EST

Wake up Adobe, here comes Microsoft.

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robert
robert - Thursday March 06, 2008 10:43AM EST

MSFT is to late for the game. Flash is embedded in all the cores (ONT DSPs) and Adobes software was one of the best selling softwares last year. Did MSFT just wake up to social networking? Yahoo may help but the flash sites powered by VP6 rock social networking. The VP7 VOIP software is opening up the communication sector to new technology. WI/FI and other WImax technologies are showing broadband can send great quality at reduced cost. MSFT could just be trying to catch a ride on the WEB 2 back. SONY,IBM, Toshiba have a big head start to MSFT slow start. Google could be a major player (open source) with new applications to undo MSFT base product lines. Even Apple is opening up the code for the Ipod/Iphone stores to sell flash application. Jobs will be selling Flash developements and content.

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robert
robert - Thursday March 06, 2008 10:57AM EST

Flash VP7 and Skype are selling the world to Sony type connections used in the new MYLO. NOK and LG have their models also. These high end mobile phones have all the bells and whistles to move information. New chips can uses the nearest signal and standard for the fastest delivery of information and quality of the best codec Flash, H2.64,Quik, mpeg, VC-1. . Its an all out war again for best video over the web. A lot is at stake for the branding, channeling of content and users. Apple , MSFT, IBM, Adobe, Skype, AOL, yahoo all want to monitize trafic and sell to customers. The Apple store is wide open to developers as Jobs is understanding that other Networks , technologies, could bring him money.

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