Just some days ago Macromedia announced Samsung taking over the Flash Lite 1.1 technology for their mobile handsets. That’s good news for people being interested in developing Flash Lite apps for cellphones and it will be interesting to observe if – and which – other companys will follow.
Well, Samsung isn’t the top mobile brand – at least in Europe… but their market share is rising. I’d like to see companies like Nokia and Motorola walking along the Flash Lite path. But we’ll have to wait a bit I guess.
The real reason of writing this entry is that I finally got a 3G phone. In Germany they’re called UMTS-phones and it’s…dada…drums please… a Nokia 6630. I love that one, besides just looking good it’s also functional, provides a lot of tools and – most important – a data cable which allows me to go online with 384k wireless from all places where I got 3G coverage. I’ve got a Vodafone contract with the phone and if you read my former entries on Vodafone 3G, the situation dramatically improved. They have a really broad range of coverage in Germany now, that’s bloody cool!
And additionally: In one of the entries I stated, that I’m not going to get a Vodafone UMTS contract due to their branding policy – which is just annoying. But – my Nokia phone is to 99% unbranded. Ok, the Vodafone logo is on the back, but the cover is changeable… Additonally I can’t play mp3 ringtones directly – they have to be downloaded from Vodafone live! Who cares? I’ve got a data cable and bluetooth and usually a ringtone is not a complete mp3 song in audio-CD quality. So, I’m fine with putting a tiny wav as a ring- or SMS-tone…
The 6630 is a sweet phone – although the Dual Voltage RS-MMC is a bit annoying, as it’s not the easiest piece of kit to your hands on. I really wish that Nokia would stop changing MMC card formats with every generation of their phones – or at least support backwards compatability. These things aren’t cheap!
I wonder when carriers are going to get the picture that people want choice in media – not just what they (the carriers) happen to offer on their service, AND that people don’t want to be hosed for transfer fees. I suspect this year we might start to see a back-lash against carriers as more and more people look for ways to get media and apps on their phones using a desktop/laptop (with a broadband connection) and either USB, Bluetooth connections and/or MMC cards.
Sweet phone! 😉
How does Vodaphones 3G data rates fare? In Canada (not even close to 3G) we’re somewhere between CDN$0.03 and CDN$0.05 per kb – making a 1MB download cost around CDN$30.00! Although we are starting to see a few limited ‘all-you-can-eat’ plans starting to emerge.
I was just at the flashforward confrence in SF and they told me that the next version of flash lite is due out by the end of this year. They also said the best phone to do development on is with nokia and espically the 6620 or 6630.
Comments on this entry are closed.