What Android Phones Will Get Flash 10.1?

adobeThe entire Android-loving public has been waiting for Flash 10.1 support on our beloved Android phones like the Droid and the Nexus One. Some lucky users of select handsets like the HTC Hero and Motorola Devour are graced with Flash Lite, but that has its fair share of limitations. So as we desperately wait for Adobe to bring Flash onboard, who will and won’t be getting a ticket to ride?

A post on the Adobe forums suggests it won’t be decided exactly how we thought:

Hi all,

You can expect the final release for Android to be available mid-year. All Android devices that meet our minimum s/w and h/w requirements will be supported. Unfortunately, I cannot say a lot more publicly about our port to the Android platform at this time.

As for WinMo, we have made the tough decision to defer support for that platform until WinMo7. This is due to the fact that WinMo6.5 does not support some of the critical APIs that we need.

As for your other questions:

* Yes, we will support the Motorola Milestone.
* No, the HTC Hero will not be supported b/c it does not have the correct Anroid OS version and it’s chipset is not powerful enough. We require a device with an ARM v7 (Cortex) processor. Examples include the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets and TI OMAP3 series.

Best regards,
Antonio

Antonio is an Adobe employee and this suggests something different than what we may have assumed – just because a handset is upgraded to Android 2.0 DOES NOT mean it will be eligible for Flash 10.1 and in fact, many phones won’t be able to enjoy Flash 10.1 regardless of OS updates. In addition to requiring Android 2.0, each phone will also require a minimum processor spec.

Taylor from AndroidAndMe did a little research and made a list of US phones that, based on this information (and assuming its true), will not ever have Flash 10.1 capabilities:

What a shame, what a shame. Hopefully they’ll at least release it to those ready, willing and able by the first half of 2010 as they’ve promised. And hopefully we can have some more clarification on exactly what phones will and won’t enjoy Flash in the future. Afterall, there are people making purchase decisions NOW based on what features their phone might have in a few months from now. We just want some transparency so we can make informed buying decisions!

[Adobe Forum via PocketNow, Thanks Reese!]

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