USA Today ran a lengthy piece yesterday about Macromedia's mobile version of Flash. The techology isn't new, earlier this year Nokia announced plans to ship a version of Flash on upcoming Series 60 phones, but this year could be the year that it becomes mainstream.

Macromedia's strategy in spreading Flash into the PC universe was to give the Flash media software "player" away for free, while selling high-end, $1,000-and-up software programs to developers to make content.

In mobile, Macromedia has a different, and potentially more lucrative, strategy. The company receives a royalty for every phone that uses Flash and charges 50 cents to $2 a phone. The firm competes with Sun Microsystems' Java and Qualcomm's Brew in the mobile market.[via mobiletracker]