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Weird. Folks actually read the fine print on an advertisement! Alright, that’s not so weird. What is weird, though, is the fact that Verizon is stating that the Motorola XOOM will not be able to browse the web with flash until Adobe Flash support comes in Spring 2011. They could be waiting for Adobe to add support for these bigger devices in an update, but it’s still sad to see it excluded at launch. We’ll be trying to dig for more information as to why this is. [Engadget]
Waita go Motorola, hope all you motor fanboys and girls are in for another long wait for flash. I new they’d pull this kind of crappy.
they ruined it
Maybe not such a shock. I own an Advent Vega Android 2.2 10″ tablet which just last week got official flash certification. The tablet initial went on sale before Christmas with an unstable and unapproved flash build but had to be taken off the shelves for a couple of months until they jumped through Adobes hoops to get flash approved for the device. You could still buy a version of the tablet without flash online (as I did) and slide flash on it which would work fine for about 30 mins before sync would go.
I suspect the Xoom will be similar in that it will launch without Flash until Adobe are 100% happy their software runs on it. Theres nothing stopping you installing unapproved flash on it but you may get some issues as with the Vega.
It’s a new O/S so i’m ok with waiting for a couple months. At least it’s going to get it, which can’t be said for ipad users.
Wow, first the locked bootloader, then the insane proce tag, now, youre trying to tell me this $800 Android tablet doesnt have frikkin flash support?!?! I never intended to buy one, as tablets (to me) are just a way to play angry birds on a bigger screen – they are utterly useless to me for any type of work application, but now I feel bad for everyone who shelled out almost a grand for an ANDROID tablet – running honeycomb no less – not 2.1 – doesnt have flash?!?! “It’ll be along in the future?!” Screw that!
So a key feature they tout in their TV and print advertisements isn’t even expected until Spring? Remember when the Droid came out and it said Flash would be available soon after launch? It took a lot longer than that. Not that it’s Motorola’s fault, but don’t promise something that your device can’t do and you have no control over.
First, this is not motorolas fault! Adobe has already stated that they need to update flash for honeycomb. Second, if you are motorola do you sit on releasing your tab, putting you further behind the competition just for flash? Moto is making a good decision here, release now and get flash when adobe has it finished.
Motorola should have been more up front about this, to be sure. BUT…
Motorola doesn’t make Flash, Adobe does. It’s Adobe’s delay, not Motorola’s.
It’s better to have to wait for Flash (if it’s that important to you) than to know your device can never support it even if it was available.
They (Motorola) didn’t “ruin” it; The large-screen-optimized version of Flash just isn’t out yet.
The “frikkin” thing DOES have Flash support, the version of Flash intended for it just isn’t released yet. You could (if you wanted to) install Flash 10.1. Might not be the best experience though, I don’t know. Someone who wasn’t planning to buy one anyway should hardly get riled over that!
Still, Motorola HAD to know that Flash 10.2 support wouldn’t be ready by their desired launch date, and they should have made that very clear. Still again, if you were going to buy one, this probably won’t stop you; if you weren’t, this is just one more reason not to but it’s basically irrelevant anyway. If you were on the fence, MAYBE this pushes you off.
Motorola should have realized that some people were going to seize on this and make it a mountain when it’s really just a mole hill. It’s like those who hated Jesus, so much so that they heckled Him for something as trivial as picking an ear of corn to eat on the Sabbath.
The more things change, the more they stay the same…
Shifter, (just to get the facts straight) ios has had flash for a while and I watch all flash videos on the web on my iphone. In fact the other day my iphone played a flash video email attachment, and my friend’s high end tmobile android could not play the flash video attachment. Could have been a fluke, but I’m sure he didn’t want it to fall short like that. Flash is like videophone over 3G, and multitasking before ios 4.0, it was not standard but apps give you a work around and you don’t need to wait for the official update or jailbreak it.
So this thing will not have netflix, hulu apps, then not have flash video either? Yikes. Even though I’m not leaning towards android tablets, I could be swayed, but I think they are trying to rush too much. The ipad 2 and it’s dual core is not coming out for another couple months, the xoom should have just waited till adobe did their part. The previous tablets didn’t even have honeycomb. They should just wait till they have something to show off, then do the lower end and limited alternative tablets.
I agree with DJ on most of his points concerning tablets in general but Flash shouldn’t be your major concern when picking out a tablet. Android already runs Flash, sure you’ll have to wait and if you cant, too bad. If its THAT big of a deal for you, go buy yourself a more powerful laptop with that money.
No, it may not be Moto’s fault, but as Randy mentioned, how long was flash promised yet not delivered on the OG Droid? This isnt a phone, its an $800 gaming/media tablet that doesnt have flash support. It was nice of them to inform everyone when they were putting down deposits. If I were one of those people, I would take my money back and wait until it has flash support. Moto knew it didnt have it, but didnt say anything until NOW?! Bitch move, Moto, bitch move, regardless of whose fault it is because you KNEW and said NOTHING until now.
@DJ, what would be worse? Them rushing it and have a somewhat working Flash build for honeycomb, but is buggy and people get frustrated over that? Or would you wait until they have time to build a fully functional version? I’d rather wait until they release a fully functional version.
Seriously, who cares? Flash is a bug not a feature.
Keep in mind that “Spring” includes all the way to June 20th.
@everyone not to mention this is android people…..it is not motorola’s job to make flash that is adobe. Companies that want to be successful on android will program for android. It is motos responsibility to put out the best product they can, which according to early reviews this does! Not to mention honeycomb is built and rewritten from the ground up. Flash is just not playing well with it right now.
To state motorola should wait for flash, netflix, hulu is silly. This is not Apple. (i want all of this, running on android too). Those of us on our third android phones have seen significant metamorphosis of android os all for the better. These will come but there are a lot of folks that have not jumped on the wagon yet. That is all.
By the way I am not a moto fan boy…lol
@Stephen
IF I was someone who wanted a tablet, I would wait until flash was functional, just like I said in my post. I would NOT lay down over $800 for an Android tablet with no flash support. Again: I would wait. I would wait. I would wait. Just thought I’d repeat myself since it appeared to be missed when I said that the first time – “If I were one of those people, I would take my money back and wait until it has flash support.” Obviously, I’m not a tablet person, so I could care less. My POINT was that moto didn’t announce it until NOW, not weeks or even days ago, and a lot of people who put down deposits with a Xoom running flash and all the other eye candy it has envisioned are now disappointed. Obviously some people don’t care, and that’s fine. I know a few who are livid. Again: Moto knew and should have said something EARLIER, not NOW. This is why I have really long posts; even when you do try to explain yout point of view completely so that people don’t misread it, it still happens. Gah! It’s 10:00 am, I’m going back to bed.
I also wasn’t implying MOTO should wait. Why would they? Apple is doing fine without flash, but when you have an android tablet running 3.0, it was pretty much expected by a lot of people that it had flash support. I was saying that people who were expecting flash and were let down should get their money back and wait it out to see if this is Spring ’11 or summer ’12. That’s all, nothing more, there are no hidden messages here. Sheesh.
I agree people expect it…funny part about it is we all have only had flash running less than a year….I do not see this as being such a big deal. It will have it in spring! :)
Its all because they are waiting on the IPAD 2 to come out.At that point Motorola can brag that they have FLASH and that they are worth the $800.Its all a big advertising game and we the people have to wait before we have flash on the new Motoro.Again they will have the update when IPAD 2 COMES OUT.
There sure are a lot of hands-on videos with magic XOOMs running Flash out there.
Can’t wait until Thursday!
@Eileen_Ulik.
I have my facts correct. Flash is not only a video player/format, but also a programming language. I know on my droid phone i can play all youtube video’s and even go to flash enabled websites :) My wife can not on her ipad. I also sold my ipad because i coudn’t go to certain sites or play HD youtube video’s. If there’s an app for that let me know what it is so i can have my wife install it on hers. I don’t want her to take my xoom because i’ll never get it back!! :)
Steve jobs is laughfin @ us!!!
The only reason that I thought flash would be a factor is simply that these arent even laptops, they aren’t running very powerful hardware – compared to even a good laptop. So, I take them as media/gaming toys. Since a LOT of the gaming sites utilize flash, I thought that would play a factor, obviously, it does not since Apple’s iPad is doing so well for some reason that escapes me. I think they are definitely neat devices, but as much as I love tech gadgets, $800 is laughable to me. I also agree with AGx 100%, if flash is a big deal to you, get a laptop, since they’re much more powerful and versatile, if flash isn’t a factor for you, and you’re just looking to watch youtube and play angry birds, etc. then definitely get the Xoom. I don’t want anyone thinking I am knocking the Xoom or the people who like it, they just make no sense to me – especially at that price point.
Um sorry but I use Flash all the time. If the tablet doesn’t come with it, that’s FAIL in my opinion. I mean talk about misleading advertising. Adobe is always behind the 8 ball.
-Brad
Um it may not launch with flash 10.2, but can’t you just go to the market and download 10.1 and voila you got flash.
Honeycomb has been in the works for a long time so it’s a shame that Adobe couldn’t have Flash Honeycomb ready at launch. I still think those who were going to buy it will buy it even without Flash but it’s bad publicity.
Why wait until Adobe gets Flash ready to launch the Xoom? Yea its a feature I use somewhat too but still…
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Like some have already posted, this is 3.0, this is dual core. I dont know about the 2 things I mentioned, but Tegra 2 phones are advised to not upgrade to updated versions of Flash in the market right now.
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So it could be 1 or both things I mentioned.
@ shifter:
Tell your wife to go into the App Store and download an app called Cloud Browse onto her iPad….she will be able to watch all the flash she wants
Aww, what a shame. You can even use flash content on an iPad if you REALLY want to.
http://www.skyfire.com/product/ipad
But seriously I don’t think it’s such a big deal for iOS OR Android, the coded games are much better than any of the flash alternatives (which wouldn’t run nearly as smoothly on mobile devices anyway…) Give it another year!
I saw something similar with my Droid 1 and Nexus 1 friends, it took a couple of teases before finally getting their flash update many months later than expected. Then when they came to show it off, hulu.com blocked their access, and even the simplest flash games did not work. Flash needs to get their shit together already for fuck’s sake. No wonder netflix and hulu Apps use html5.
There is already a Flash beta that works GREAT on the Gtablet and have the same chipset. Unless Moto did something to prevent side-loading apps, it should work on the Xoom.
Flash may not be that important for some but for me, that have already returned my ipad just to pay $800 for an incomplete tablet is definitely making me think twice. Why? Well the ipad does everything I needed it to do, but because I can afford it and like how the moto xoom looks with honeycomb I will get, but all of this little misprint other stuff are making me think “did I made the right choice?”
@rushmore – Gtablet doesn’t run Honeycomb, so it may be an OS issue. I personally think we’ve seen enough hands-on videos showing Flash running on the XOOM, to know that we’ll be fine.
Atrix id bootlocked and prevents side-loading apps
Guess the xoom is also locked the same way
Fed up with moto lock stuffs
no atrix nor xoom for me
this is just one of numerous market launch missteps that Moto has committed. I am amazed that they have managed to create SOO much negative feelings around this product through Price/Data plan/flash given all of the hype that android fans have for a decent droid tablet. The level of angst by droid fans about Xoom compared to anticipation by Ipad 2 fans has to be alarming for Moto. Someone will lose their job over this market release.
Man, Motorola has really botched the hell out this launch. I was so excited for this device, but it’s just one thing after the next.
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The price, no SD or 4G at launch, extortionist corporate BS to make you pay for 3G plan and now no flash? I think I’m done wanting this tablet. I’ll keep waiting.
Some one seriously drop the ball at Motorola.
I am pissed. I was considering going to get one on Thursday, as soon as I could get out of work. Now this issue just made me change my mind. After all the hype, which it deserves, I find out 3 days prior to release that this will not actually have flash…. Not even the old flash version, which isn’t that old. Wtf MOTO… Get a clue and give us what you say you will.
$800 is a lot too….
@Bizzle9… Stop changing your name YOU BITCH ASS… Your really ksizzle9 I been waiting on your fagit ass self… BITCH ASS TROLL.. Yeah grow a long memory… BUM ASS
Adobe have clarified the situation here: http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplatform/2011/02/update-for-fp-10-2-on-tabs.html
“Adobe will offer Flash Player 10.2 pre-installed on some tablets and as an OTA download on others within a few weeks of Android 3 (Honeycomb) devices becoming available”
@Richard,
You are mistaken. Frankly, I am embarrassed for you.
I’m Ok with the Motorola XOOM will not be able to browse the web with flash until Adobe Flash support comes in Spring 2011.