Given the overwhelming number of flashlight applications on the iPhone App store and the word "Lite" being applied to applications with lowere functionality/features it's hard for me to look at the phrase "Flash Lite" without thinking of an iPhone application of infinite uselessness. But this post has nothing to do with the iPhone or useless applications. I found out by way of WMPowerUser.com about Adobe allowing the Flash Lite 3.1 Runtime to be packaged with executables. This will allow Flash developers/designers to create programs for Windows Mobile while having very little knowledge about Windows Mobile development (it works for Symbian devices too).
There's a Tutorial over at Flashbot.net that shows shows how to package a Flash movie for a Windows Mobile device. The end result of all of your work is a cab that's ready to be installed on a Windows Mobile device. It's been years since I've done any development with Flash. And since I've been concentrating on Silverlight 2.0 lately it's doubtful that I'll be getting back into it any time soon so I won't be able to evaluate this for myself. But from looking at it I see one thing I don't like; you've got to create different versions of your application for each screen resolution that you want to support. Given the ever increasing number of resolutions supported by Windows Mobile and the ability to change resolution that limitation doesn't lend itself well to creating adaptable applications.
There's a negative and a positive that come from this. The negative first. Since it is easier for a novice to pickup Flash and create applications of limited functionality than to pick up C++ or C# to produce an application of limited functionality I could see many of those novices recreating applications like iFart , I am Rich , More Cow Bell, and the ultimate of usless apps: Flashlight (as in illumination) for Windows Mobile written with FlashLite. But such things are to be expected and normal. Any time a device is opened to a wider spectrum of developers you'll find a wider spectrum of applications. As an example look at the Internet. 30 years ago it wasn't as accessible and an overwhelming majority of what you could find on the Internet was informational content from academic institutions and reasearch organizations. Presentday you can still find plenty of information but loads of crap too (in all honesty I've posted my own bit of useless content, such as this picture of my cat). Despite the unlimited number of useless yet potentially entertaining applications that are likely to follow overall I'd view this development as good. not everything produced will be useless and non-functional. There have been some pretty impressive content produced with Flash. My hopes are that this will become popular among Flash developers.
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