This would be the same Adobe Reader LE and Flash Lite that my HTC Touch Dual arrived with weeks ago, yes...?

Yes.

Companies, such as HTC, are at liberty to licence any software they like, from anyone. The difference with this deal is the ability to licence that software from Microsoft, as part of the Windows Mobile bundle.

Sorry if that wasn't clear from the piece.

Bill.

"Companies, such as HTC, are at liberty to licence any software they like, from anyone. The difference with this deal is the ability to licence that software from Microsoft, as part of the Windows Mobile bundle."

Ye Olde SteamRoller/Hoover Approach to Innovation and Novelty. In CyberSpace Trades, IT is IP Portfolio Licensing Transfers which Realise Creation with Assets...... with FutureVU Builds.

Isn't there already a Java ME runtime on Windows Mobile? The world doesn't need any more proprietary software on phones...

"The world doesn't need any more proprietary software on phones..."

Java is used on phones for games, and precious little else. It isn't a PDF reader and it failed as an RIA platform. The future of apps on phones is web-based Flash and Silverlight solutions, not Java. Thus whether Java is available on phones or not is of little consequence.

So if this deal "doesn't mean that every Windows Mobile device will suddenly become Flash-capable", what does it mean? Will I be able to bundle flash lite on my proprietary hardware running windows CE wia a license bundled with Windows CE, or is this purely for phones?

"Java is used on phones for games, and precious little else"

That's not really true. Google and Yahoo do some good Java apps.

I had a HTC Wizard then a HTC TyTn for a while. A found windows mobile an awful phone OS. The lack of Java was a real pain. And the browser is awful. Putting Opera on it improved things a bit, but you can't quickly zoom in and out, or get a page overview. I could have used the excellent opera mini, *if* it had java.

I now have a Nokia 6120 symbian phone. It's *very* usable, has an excellent browser, is stable and has a good java implementation. it's much smaller than any of the windows phones. i don't miss the touch screen at all. it's great not needing a stylus, particularly when you're on the move. bluetooth works better. the battery life is longer.

some of the models due to come out look great too (e.g. n96, n68, 6220).

htc hardware: cool

windows mobile: sucks monkey balls

Just so you know, from the next version of flash (10/cs4) there will no longer be flash lite.

Shame Flash Lite 3 doesn't support Flash 9 and only barely supports Flash 8, which means most websites that you'd actually want to use this for such as YouTube or largely scuppered.