Verizon to Add FlashCast Content to Phones

Adobe today announced that Verizon Wireless will be adding FlashCast content to their phones. FlashCast is a competitor to Screen3, as well as Celltop. These technologies are aimed at pushing current news, weather, and information to the home screen of a user’s cell phone; allowing them to chose content they want updated in real-time.

FlashCast will be added to phones using Verizon’s BREW UI, which already has been adapted to support Adobe Flash. Flash technologies powers FlashCast, which is a superset of the existing Flash Mobile technology. FlashCast is currently being used in Japan under NTT DoCoMo.

Verizon expects to begin releasing the first FlashCast-enabled phones in the second half of this year. Content will be available in terms of Basic and Premium packages, but no pricing or service requirements were issued. Verizon currently bills per-minute for data usage, however does allow for certain web pages (such as My Account) to be accessed at no airtime charge.

Adobe Press Release