Kuneri bloggy

Some Flash Lite developers have been wishing Adobe to let developers to embed Flash Lite player with their products (there is even petition).

Its not going to happen, for various reasons, one you can see below, if you stand some nerd language:

In S60 phone models embedding (embed SIS into SIS install file) can (would) be used to provide common frameworks or game engines within applications.

However, embedding SIS does not work much at all in S60 3rd edition phones, because 3rd platform suffers severe bug, which ruins the method completely:

If you embed SIS into your application (for instance FL player) you should define dependency to embedded SIS into applications using it, to avoid uninstallation of embedded product, when some of the applications is uninstalled.

This just does not work in S60 3rd edition.

Example: If user installs application A which come with embedded file x. Then user installs app B using embedded x. When user uninstalls A, also embedded file will be removed!

Actually it is not possible to provide other file types either, to be used commonly for applications, due problematic S60 uninstallation behaviour.

So you won’t see many common players, frameworks, engines around for S60 platform, which you could integrate within your product, except having customized solution instead.

Fresh report from strategyanalytics about Flash Lite market growth:

Adobe’s Flash Lite technology has taken off rapidly in the last 18 months. Cumulatively, over 301 million FL devices, of which over 90% are cellphones, have been shipped since 2003. The base continues to strengthen in Japan, but in 2008 we will see shipments of Flash Lite-enabled cellphones in the rest of the Asia Pacific region and Western Europe exceed shipments in Japan for the first time since the launch of Flash Lite. A further 1.4 billion FL-enabled phones are expected to be shipped globally over the next three years alone, at which point over 46% of phones shipped are likely to support Flash Lite. This report gives a global forecast of the market for Flash Lite-enabled phones with detailed analysis of 23 countries, and splits by Flash Lite version, air interface and network operator.

(from I2Fly)

Here is a great finding from Stephanie; Eurobarometer; Mobile and Internet Habits if EU 9.12 years olds. That’s really worth reading.

• More than three-quarters of girls and boys aged 9 to 10 have one.
• Nine out of ten girls and boys aged 12 to 14 have one.
• More often than not the mobile phone was received as a present (from parents, uncles or aunts, grandparents).
• Those who have a mobile phone show themselves to be very satisfied, and even “proud” to own one. This is clearly a form of valuation, a kind of “rite of passage”, the clear “sign” of access to a state of relative “maturity” and of belonging to a new group.
• Among the youngest children, keeping in permanent contact with their parents is advanced by a majority.
• Sending/receiving text messages is the favourite and intense activity of children, in particular, as we have just stressed, of the older children (aged 12 to 14). Apart from the fact that text messages are “cheaper” than voice calls, sending and receiving text messages is part and parcel of a specific “culture” in these age categories. This very evidently involves a language of their own, which is “coded” and differentiated, attesting to a mutual recognition and the sense of belonging to a group. In a nutshell: “you phone your parents but you text your friends”.
• Connecting to the Internet by mobile phone is a very marginal use, deemed by a very large number to be pointless when you have a computer at home, but above all too expensive, complicated and also risky, since it potentially generates viruses.

Check out Nokia’s research: Evolution of mobile gaming.

Nokia commissioned Nielsen Entertainment to conduct research in six countries worldwide. One hour interviews were carried out with 1,800 participants across China, Germany, India, Spain, Thailand and the United States. The findings provide a global overview of mobile phone gaming habits and what mobile phone gamers are looking for in the next generation of mobile gaming.

Here are some key global findings:

• The mobile phonegamerssurveyed are frequently playing mobile games with the vast majority (80%) playing at least once a week and 34% playing every day
• The average length of time spent playing mobile games is 28 minutes
• Nearly two thirds (63%) of the respondents preferred the richer experience of Nokia’s next generation mobile games offering over existing Java 2D and Java 3D games offerings, particularly following game trials
• The majority (65%) would prefer to pay for a full game outright rather than buy a subscription (27%)
• When it comes to getting games, over-the-internet (OTI) distribution (34%) is almost as popular as over-the-air (OTA) distribution (45%)
• Multiplayer gaming is a regular part of mobile phone gamers lifestyles with 45% playing multiplayer games on their mobile phones at least once a month
• 62% would send demos of games they like directly to their friends and 79% would try a demo received from a friend

Nokia commissioned Nielsen Entertainment to conduct research in six countries worldwide. One hour interviews were carried out with 1800 participants across China, Germany, India, Spain, Thailand and the United States.

The results found mobile phone gamers frequently play mobile games for an average of 28 minutes per session, value improved game graphics, prefer to trial games before buying, and find communities increasingly integral to their overall mobile gaming experience.

Read more here.

Great source about the differences between European and American mobile phone use and culture. If you are interested in these markets, it definetely worths to read and pay attention. Also, don’t forget to check comments, you will see many further analysis for different cultures and specific countries.

It could be really nice to see Japan included into this comparison. For Flash Lite developers, maybe the first real market to study and learn.

via biskero

IGDA Casual games SIG published 2006 Casual Games White Paper, a great resource for anyone working on casual games. The paper represents the combined knowledge of 40 professionals in casual gaming, spanning all aspects of the industry including developers, publishers, portals, tool providers and more.

Exciting white paper (PDF) prepared by Juniper Research on global mobile games market for next 5 years. The market is expected to generate $17.6 billion revenue by 2011, with casual games acting as a market driver.

The casual games sector is going to be the market driver, even though it may not be at the leading edge of mobile games technology. Casual games make most use of the inherent advantages of the mobile platform. People want to fill ‘dead time’ with easy to use, but fun games. This is the same in just about every culture.

I would like to underline some points here. It is mentioned the role of casual games in the market and practical meaning of casual games. Does that ring a bell for FlashLite community? Well, I believe it should. We do not need a research report to tell that FlashLite penetration rate will be higher in 2011 (well I think we already have one). If things progress as they are predicted, it seems like FlashLite has the highest potential to be the major player in mobile game industry in 5 years. Why? Well, is there any better platform to create ‘casual’ mobile games, offering low cost and short development time, with background of that many developers worldwide?

via moconews, wirelessweek