"The innovation we are most excited about," said Bruce Chizen, Adobe's CEO, "is Apollo, which we believe will revolutionize the way the world will interact with the Web in the future." He was speaking here in Las Vegas at MAX 2006, the biggest ever Adobe developer conference.

"The possibilities for Adobe and you the developer community," he told the 3000 or so assembled attendees, "are endless."

Chizen was pleased with the progress that Adobe had made since the merger with Macromedia, he said. The net net, for developers and designers: "a lot of tools and resources to get your jobs done, including a whole bunch of experiments that we're throwing up on Adobe Labs. Plus we're trying to develop more seamless workflows so you can be more productive and effective in helping us change the world."

Part of the world that Adobe is still trying to change is North America and, since wireless and devices and Flash Lite was very much the big theme of the Day Two keynote, the company's SVP for the Mobile and Device Business Unit, Al Ramadan, was given - quite literally - center stage.

Given the predominantly Web bias of the audience, Ramadan had a tough time out there this morning. But he perservered.

Ramadan remidned the audioence that what he termed "the non-PC opportunities" for Flash developers were mostly outside the US this time last year, when he addressed MAX 2005. Whereas this year he was going to be able to show developers how at last they could start making money as a mobile device developer here in the US.

In order to make his case, he ceded the podium to John Stratton, VP and CMO for Verizon Wireless, who in a prerecorded video link introduced the Verizon/Adobe/Qualcomm alliance behind Flash 2.1 Lite for BREW.

"We think this is going to create an entirely new level," said Stratton. "Al's been talking about this for years. We have already started creating devices, and Flash Lite is at the heart of the 'Get It Now' experience for Verizon customers in 2007," he added.

The Adobe developer community, said Stratton, is a key to this. "It's the Flash developers." (At which point a 50 foot screen bearing the legend "IT'S THE FLASH DEVELOPERS" appeared. But the audience didn't so much as clap. A strange moment.

"This super-exciting project," Ramadan undauntedly called it, as he thanked Stratton. Announced last year, Flash Lite for BREW is now finally ready and available and shipping, he confirmed. 

"All of this effort is to enable you," Ramadan continued," our developer community, to make money. It's only going to evolve with your leadership, every single one of you. You changed the experience of the Web from flat to really exciting...but Google made all the money!"

"Now you can help transform the mobile experience, but this time YOU make the money."

Ramadan then invited Qualcomm's Peggy Johnston, President of Qualcomm Internet Services & Media, who spoke to this issue of making money developing Flash content. 

Flash content was definitely something she wanted to help bring to mobile devices, Johnson confiemed:

"I want you to share with me your talent and your imagination."

Qualcomm's been on the telcom business for 20 years or so, Johnston explained. "We built the BREW platform for ourselves, and we then brought BREW to the wireless indyustry. If we could bring value to everyone in the chain, wireless operators, handset manufacturers, and then the developers....This 'Virtuous Cycle' is the key. Developers develop apps, then they're tested so that we can be sure it runs across handsets then the opeator looks at them and decides which ones they want to use. Developers get an agreed amount every time the app is downloaded. The charge goes right on the bill and the money comes rolling back through the operator to the developers."

"Is this just for the big guys?" Jonhston asked herself rhetorically. "No."

BREW, explained Johnston, was built from a bunch of small developers. Take RocketMobile. In 2001 they were 3 guys in a garage...one of the apps they started out with was MS 2004 3 3005 5 30006 $11M; and then RocketMobile was bought for $30M by Italian company BuonGiorino.

"Or Jamdat mobile, with us from the very beginning." Jamdat's Mitch Laski, many in the audience knew, ended up being bought by Electronic Arts for $650M.

("Not too shabby," as Johnston expressed it.)

Verizon is not only the very first North American operator to have Flash-enabled handsets, Johnston said. It was also the first NAmerican operator to join BREW. "We now have over 65 operators around the world. These are your potential customers," she stated, continuing:

"We already have an active BREW developer community and it already knows it can make money, but now that Flash Lite on BREW is available you can take advantage too."

Qualcomm's BREW has paid out over $700M to developers, Jonhston reported - up 100% from $350M the previous year.  "Come join the BREW ecosystem!" she said.

"So we really have an opportunity," continued Ramadan. He then explained how Adobe is partnering with 3 content aggregators in the BREW environment:

ATOM, a division of MTV
FunMobility
Smashing Content, a division of smashing ideas

These three companies will be hosting the Flash content catalogs, said Ramadan.

I know lots about Flash, but how do I get it onto a mobile phone?

Bill Perry, who heads Global Developer Relations, Mobile & Devices for Adobe, then drilled down into the "How" of using Flash Professional 8 to publish a mobile app, a game, as a Flash Lite 2.1 app for BREW (downloadable in a preview version from Adobe Labs from today).

Perry used the same workflow as publishing a Flash app to the Web. There were only 4 simple steps, using a BREW Publishing Wizard. After running it on an emulator built in to Flash Professional 8 , he even tested it on a Verizon Wireless handset by connecting it to his PC via a USB cable.

"Any Verizon Wireless subscriber can download a game.," Perry said. "You can sell content to the aggregators and they will have a relationship with the operators."

"We have enabled an opp for you to make money today here in the US," Perry continued. "But we're not stopping there. How can we improve the mobile content authoring workflow?"

Future Mobile Workflow

To answer that question Perry then demo'd using Photoshop and Flash Lite to create a mobile application from scratch. Key to it was a very sophisticated mobile device performance emulator, with a dashboard that makes the Flash Lite development side of things very easy.

Al Ramadan then rounded off the section devoted to Adobe's wireless play.

"The people in this room transformed the Web," he repeated, underlining his earlier point. "You have created apps and content that made people go 'Wow!' But what are you going to do next? How are you going to transform the mobile experience?

"This is our time," he continued, aroogating to himself the right to speak on behalf of Flash developers everywhere... "Let's make it happen."

As ever, in the marketplace of i-Technology, North American developers themselves will decide.