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Flash Coming to Android End of ’09?

13

adobe_flash_8s600x600Looks like Adobe is finally getting into our mobile market. As reported by the WSJ, Adobe hopes to have a product out for various mobile operating systems including Android, Palm Pre, and Nokia. Interestingly, and not surprisingly, enough there is no mention of Apple’s iPhone.

From WSJ:

The shift comes as smart phones, which are powerful enough to run programs, are proliferating, just as the PC market has weakened. Smart-phone sales jumped 13% to 36 million units in the first quarter , while PC shipments fell 6.5% to 67 million, according to research company Gartner.

Users of these operating systems will no doubt be overjoyed as dreams and prayers of Flash on their mobile devices will hopefully be answered by years end. Without a doubt, this addition will add countless hours of mindless web surfing and additional stress on mobile networks. Good luck, guys.

Still wondering why the iPhone is getting left out in the cold? Rest assured, this isn’t Adobe’s fault!

Meanwhile, longtime ally Apple has balked at putting Flash on its devices. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs last year said Flash is too slow to run on the iPhone for technical reasons and Flash Lite doesn’t run enough programs to be included. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen says customers have been pressing his company to make Flash work on the iPhone.

So keep your ears on the railroad tracks, and your eyes on Phandroid for all the latest updates!

[via WSJ, Thanks Iam418!]

Tyler Miller

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13 Comments

  1. I believe Apple had some issues with allowing Flash on their device…to much freedom of look and feel or something.

  2. Apple’s licensing agreement states that you’re not allowed to run any software in order to run other software. So Flash would violate this rule (also the reason Java is not on the iPhone). Android, however, has no rules! Yeah! :)

  3. Um.. FYI, Flash is already on Android. Not OFFICIALLY, of course, but if you are using Haykuro’s port of the HTC Hero firmware on the HTC Dream/G1, there is built-in Flash in the browser. I think it is Flash 7, but that’s still better than nothing.

  4. The latest leaked HTC Hero ROM has Flash in the browser already. :D

  5. Flash was mobile before Android was a twinkle in Google’s eye. Come on man, do your homework.

  6. You do know Flash has been on devices for more than 4 years, right?

    Sure it’s been Flash 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, and now 3.1 … but, hey, the market has been low to mid range devices (handsets, PMPs, etc) up until just last year.

    Now it’s about $600 SmartPhones (thanks Apple!) … :) So, yes FP 10 is being worked on, and hopefully it’ll be out end of year on some cool devices (Android, Palm based devices, Nokia, et al with the Open Screen Project) …iPhone? Well, it’s a business thing, not technical! I doubt we’ll see it until new devices start stealing away Apple’s market share and they start to care about features like Flash …

    BTW, those interested in developing apps and content for Flash 10 (or Flash Lite for that matter), can pick up our book due out soon:

    http://www.friendsofed.com/book.html?isbn=9781430219040

  7. That should be Flash Lite 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0 and 3.1 by the way … :)

  8. Guys,

    *our* mobile market. Android’s mobile market.

  9. Plus the added significance of it coming directly from Adobe…

  10. I’m a web developer and system administrator. I hope Flash never officially makes it to the Android (or iPhone for that matter).

    On the web I have only seen flash add value to a handful of sites… its also has accessibility issues.

    As a systems guy, Flash rapes CPUs without looking back. Wave good bye to your battery when your pounded by three vector intensive advertisements per page. We don’t need more proprietary content platforms.

    We are blessed with modern browsers on these devices lets not load them up with crud.

  11. I agree with you Rob. It is significant. I know I will be one overloading the network. I’ve been waiting for flash since I’ve gotten this phone. Prayers have been answered. Thankyou ADOBE.

    This comment was posted from Googles ingeniously designed and distributed operating system that is the wave of the future.

  12. I agree with Scott.

    I had flash on my Pogo phone years ago. The entire O/S was built in and around flash. And 3rd party apps HAD to be written in flash…

  13. What a coincidence, so Flash will be popping up around the same time Android Eclair with OpenGL ES 2.0 support lands on Tegra-powered Android phones….

    Yeah my next phone will be a Christmas 09 phone :)

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