|
Let's go through the list real quick. Besides the 436
million folks out there that can play Flash now, the Macromedia
Flash Player can run on millions, that's right –millions-
of Pocket PC devices, some of which are Pocket PC Phone
Edition devices. The Macromedia Flash player also runs on
the Nokia 9200 communicator series, another phone. On the
Interactive TV front: Web TV/Ultimate TV, Liberate, Moxi,
MSTV, and OpenTV. You've even got a device called "the
Pogo" which is basically a cell phone and mobile Flash
player all in one. That's a pretty good selection of devices,
but wait, there's more. As more industries adopt Plasma
screens as part of their information display systems, many
are using Macromedia Flash as a great way to display information—from
the price of cheeseburgers to flight information. Companies
are using Flash as a front end for ATM and financial systems.
So what does this have to do with your clients? IDC predicts
that over 167 million devices will be sold in 2005, at a
40% compound annual growth rate from 2000. It's a safe assumption
that your clients are thinking about or doing something
with devices. Next time you are at your clients' offices,
or if you have a pretty open dialog with them, find out
what type of devices they're using. Most companies deploy
PDAs and cell phones to their staff. Learn what gear they're
using, and ask if they're planning any mobile solutions.
Your client might just see you as a "design and web"
resource, and not know that you could provide device solutions.
Not every client will be using devices, but that doesn't
mean your shouldn't take advantage of all your Flash skills,
and start creating applications for devices now.
And that’s the major rub. Before we can discuss how to
pitch these solutions to clients, you'll need to invest
time in building some device solutions. Otherwise, expect
a scenario in which you'll be immediately frustrated and
your clients will be underwhelmed. Even if you are a fourth
level grand dark wizard of ActionScript, there’s more to
creating Macromedia Flash applications for devices than
simply resizing the content.
Don’t fret though, there are tons of resources. Your first
stop is the Macromedia
Flash Device Resource Center. At the center, you can
find Content Development Kits (CDKs), which are freely available
for download. The CDKs include FAQs, samples, best practices,
tips and tricks. CDKs are available for the Pocket PC, Nokia
9200 Communicator Series, and ITV platforms. Macromedia
also has case studies with ROI information (which we all
know is the type of information clients are usually looking
for). Other resources include: The book "Flash
Enabled: Flash Design and Development for Devices" which
has just been published.
Let’s assume you’ve dug in, turned on, tuned in and did
your time in device application development using Macromedia
Flash. You’ve created some sample apps, and ported over
some of your content. Now it’s time to start figuring out
how to get paid doing this, right? The bill collectors don’t
take Macromedia Flash applications as forms of payment (I
tried).
So who can you sell these solutions to? Companies who have
paid you in the past are more likely to pay you again. If
you have clients that you've previously created content,
websites, or applications for, these are the folks who you
should put on the top of your list when you are ready to
begin presenting solutions. That said, it may not make sense
to pitch these types of solutions to all clients.
An easy project (and low investment on your side), that
might get buy off right away, is to present a mobile version
of recent work you've created. A recent project that we
did at Fallon was just like that. We were creating a series
of online advertisements for Lee Dungarees. The campaign
was called the "The Buddy Lee Starting Contest". You can
check it out in the Arcade
section of their website. During the project, I was
also writing parts of the Macromedia Flash for Pocket Content
Development Kit (see the link above). For kicks and giggles
Tom Kunau, (the lead interactive developer on the project
at Fallon), and I made a few minor modifications—such
as fonts, sound compression and screen size and ran it on
our Pocket PCs. It looked and performed great.
I quickly called up our Account guy for Lee Dungarees (ironically,
his name is Lee), and he asked me to put together a quick
PowerPoint presentation with market share numbers for the
Pocket PC (at the time it was a couple million) as well
as screen shots of the application. Within a day or so,
the client approved the PDA version! We launched it, it
was featured on many Pocket PC and device sites, and folks
really enjoyed it.
You’d think that this was a happy enough ending right?
It gets better. At the annual One
Show Interactive Awards, the Buddy Lee Staring contest
for Pocket PC won a bronze award for the Wireless category,
one of the first Flash applications and Pocket PC applications
to win an award like this. So, knowing the market share
numbers and building a presentation helped get this project
approved. We also had some great content that could easily
run on a Pocket PC and we were able to make a prototype
very quickly. I don’t think that this is something rare
or unusual; most projects I hear about come into life in
similar ways.
Another project we recently rolled out was the "Microsoft
Enterprise Demo for Pocket PC". For this project we
were tasked to create a self-guided tour of the Pocket PC
2002 features with an Enterprise focus. Some of the challenges
were:
- It was required to run on the Pocket PC
- It was required to run on desktop systems
- It had to be modular enough to support lots of folks
working on the copy, design, and architecture of the application
simultaneously
- We needed to bring some excitement to Enterprise features
of the Pocket PC 2002, while still staying within the
branding and messaging of Microsoft’s Pocket PC
When we analyzed our development options to determine which
would accommodate all these requirements, Macromedia Flash
was the lead contender. There were other solutions, such
as custom desktop and device applications which could be
created in Visual Basic or C++, but given the timeline and
budget, this wasn’t an option. So while there are many ways
to "skin a cat" Flash ranks really high, especially when
you compare the other options.
So from companies like Lee Dungarees to Microsoft, there's
often a need (I'd say there's an enormous hunger) for rich,
interactive branded solutions for devices. The trick is
knowing when and where these may all fit in...it's not an
exact science and may never be. At the end of the day, there
are many ways to sell your device solutions; each case will
be different, but most have commonalities. I've outlined
a few that I hope will be useful.
|
