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Microsoft and Adobe Agree on Mobile Flash Licensing

• By Kurt Mackie
• 03/19/08

Microsoft licensed two of Adobe's software products for use with smartphones that run Microsoft Windows Mobile operating systems, according to an announcement issued by Adobe Monday.

The Adobe products slated to be integrated with Microsoft's OS will include Flash Lite version 3.x and Adobe Reader LE software. Exactly when the solutions might be integrated into the phones was not specified in Adobe's announcement.

Flash Lite plugs into browsers, in this case, into Internet Explorer Mobile. The Adobe plug-in is designed to enable interactive Web content and animations within the phone's browser, a compact version of Internet Explorer. The product works with Qualcomm BREW, Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile platforms, as well as with various embedded OSes.

The Adobe Reader LE product is designed to enable the viewing of Portable Document Format-based media. It has special features to work with the small screens of smartphones, making it easier to read PDFs.

"Bringing Flash Lite and Reader LE to the Windows Mobile experience will give consumers more of their favorite Websites on the go," stated John O'Rourke, Microsoft's general manager of mobile communications business, in Adobe's announcement.

Adobe's Flash and PDF formats are ubiquitous on the Web, so the deal comes as no surprise. However, Microsoft has its own rich Internet application solution, Silverlight -- a competing platform to Flash. This deal means that both Flash Lite and Silverlight will be enabled for users of smartphones running the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system.

No such deal has been heard as yet with Apple's iPhone.