Flash blues
To shed a bit more light on the matter, we spoke to Dominique Jodoin, CEO of Bluestreak Technology. Bluestreak was created to build on the Flash specifications that Macromedia made public before it was acquired by Adobe and do more with them.
The founders saw potential implementations in embedded devices and soon won deals with Time Warner cable US to power the user interface in their set-top boxes. More recently Bluestreak's MachBlue platform has been used by Orange as the platform for its mobile TV service - Orange World TV.
Bluestreak has a uniquely ambiguous relationship with Adobe. While it wants people to use Flash, it wants them to use Machblue, rather than Adobe's version. "Adobe creates the ecosystem, but we compete directly with them," said Jodoin. "We do a Flash engine and a specific set of APIs. They enable people to take advantage of the capabilities of chipsets."
This means that Jodoin is keen to point out the limitations of Adobe's product, he's equally keen for the ecosystem to proliferate. "Almost half of all mobile devices are equipped with Flash," he said. "There are 2-3 million Flash developers out there, how are they going to make money?"
So is he worried about HTML 5? "We're looking at that closely, but it's still at an early stage," said Jodoin.