TomSoft

The rise of Vector Graphic

May 1st, 2006

One obvious and interesting trend in mobile is the rise of vector based graphics and MMI. All new mobile graphic engines are more or less vector based, much more than 3D based. Of course, a 3D engine is also a vector graphic engine, but there are some fundamental differences between the two, much more at the creation level then at the rendering level. Interestingly, on the desktop, UI did not changed a lot since years and does not use a lot animations. Even if more and more desktop rendering engine are vector based or even 3D based, the display itself does not take really advantage of this: no animation, etc…

So why vector graphics are so adapted for mobile:

• in a limited space, animation is a way to provide a much better feedback to
  the user (compared to stand alone graphs)
• there is no “standard” UI for mobile yet (even if there are some
  emerging trends). The learning curve of something new is very fast compared to
  desktop, so you have the ability to explore new metaphore.
• vector graphic is an easy way to solve the screen size and cross platform
  issue….
• tools are adapted for UI designer (Flash for instance).
• size: vector based animation haves usually a much smaller size…

Several companies are investing the space right now. Of course, Macromedia/Flash should be one of the early winner on this path. However, as I’ve put more effort in the past weeks on Flash, I can tell you that but Java not so far away, thanks to TSVG and JSR226. On the browser side, seems that the path is still a little bit long, as we are still waiting for good browser (Opera is a good starting point).

I’ve just make a short “list” of companies related to this area:

• Macromedia/Adobe with FlashLite
• Streamezzo especially with their recent fund rasing of 11m€
• BlueStreak, Actimagine both provide some alternate Flash rendering
  engine
• Ikivo who is strong on TSVG side too
• Everypoint on the pure J2me side, as well as the latest entrant in my
  radar, TricastMedia with their “Omega” technology….

Technorati Tags: j2me, flash, flashlite, tsvg, vector

Entry Filed under: FlashLite, JavaME