Wireless browser company Access Co. Ltd. said it will include Macromedia’s Flash technology in its NetFront browser.
“Macromedia Flash is the obvious choice for our NetFront browser because of its ability to effectively deliver rich content in a compact format,” said Toru Arakawa, Access’ president and chief executive officer. “By choosing an industry standard such as Macromedia Flash, we now have access to not only a huge developer community, but powerful authoring software and a wide array of content types that we can deliver in our embedded browser platform.”
Macromedia is the company behind many of the animated pictures and cartoons on the Web. The company’s Flash player is installed in 414 million desktop computers, and Macromedia is the only third-party technology vendor to get its software into Microsoft Corp.’s new Windows XP operating system. The company counts 1.3 million Flash developers.
On the wireless side, Macromedia has signed deals with a variety of companies, including: Symbian and Microsoft for integration with the companies’ operating systems; Nokia Corp., Siemens AG and Casio Computer Co. for Flash support in select devices; and Intel Corp. to optimize Flash for the company’s chip architecture.
Access said there are 86 million licensed copies of its NetFront browser, and it has shipped in 230 products.
Earlier this week, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. released its first handset with Flash technology. The moya D505i is the first in a series of enhanced PDC i-mode handsets that will allow users to view fluid animation.
