Flash coming to most smartphones, but not Apple's iPhone
Adobe on Monday announced partnerships with numerous handset operating system makers, including Research in Motion, Nokia, Palm, Google and Microsoft, to bring Flash Player 10.1 to smartphones. Absent from the list: Apple.
Flash 10.1 is expected to be available as a public beta for Google Android and Nokia's Symbian OS in early 2010. Developer betas of the browser-based runtime will be available for Windows Mobile and Palm webOS later this year. No date was given for BlackBerry devices.
Adobe said that the new mobile version of Flash offers accelerated video and graphics capabilities while conserving battery life. The new player offers streaming video in HD and browser-based Web applications.
"With Flash Player moving to new mobile platforms, users will be able to experience virtually all Flash technology based Web content and applications wherever they are," said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. "We are excited about the broad collaboration of close to 50 industry leaders in the Open Screen Project and the ongoing collaboration with 19 out of the top 20 handset manufacturers worldwide. It will be great to see first devices ship with full Flash Player in the first half of next year."
Of course, the elusive twentieth manufacturer missing from Adobe's lineup is Apple.
Though the iPhone is not included among the handsets, past reports have suggested that Adobe hopes to bring it to the platform. If that were to happen, though, Flash would have to overcome its various shortcomings on mobile devices as perceived by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
With Flash 10.1, Adobe aims to have cross-compatibility with PCs, smartphones, netbooks and a range of devices with various screen sizes. The effort is a part of the company's Open Screen Project initiative, which includes more than 50 companies.
Flash 10.1 is expected to be available as a public beta for Google Android and Nokia's Symbian OS in early 2010. Developer betas of the browser-based runtime will be available for Windows Mobile and Palm webOS later this year. No date was given for BlackBerry devices.
Adobe said that the new mobile version of Flash offers accelerated video and graphics capabilities while conserving battery life. The new player offers streaming video in HD and browser-based Web applications.
"With Flash Player moving to new mobile platforms, users will be able to experience virtually all Flash technology based Web content and applications wherever they are," said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. "We are excited about the broad collaboration of close to 50 industry leaders in the Open Screen Project and the ongoing collaboration with 19 out of the top 20 handset manufacturers worldwide. It will be great to see first devices ship with full Flash Player in the first half of next year."
Of course, the elusive twentieth manufacturer missing from Adobe's lineup is Apple.
Though the iPhone is not included among the handsets, past reports have suggested that Adobe hopes to bring it to the platform. If that were to happen, though, Flash would have to overcome its various shortcomings on mobile devices as perceived by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
With Flash 10.1, Adobe aims to have cross-compatibility with PCs, smartphones, netbooks and a range of devices with various screen sizes. The effort is a part of the company's Open Screen Project initiative, which includes more than 50 companies.
Comments
Fake apologies for all you guys who "develop" Flash content for a living, but I'm thrilled to be on the 1-in-20 platform that won't support battery-killing Flash-trash ads.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Adobe should be made to deliver a version of Flash that actually performs on the OS X platform before being allowed to move on to the iPhone OS.
At least the Android, etc. crowd will get the eventual option of some sort of Flashblock; I suspect Mobile Windows users will be hosed, as usual.
I'm also growing increasingly impatient over Apple's inability to support multi-tasking on the iPhone. It would be incredibly useful to be able to have Spotify or other web radio/streaming aps running in the background while I email, browse, use google maps etc. And I'd like Twitter, IM, and other gadgets running all the time on the home screen, instead of having to launch them, then quit them, then launch them, then quit them etc etc.
The iPhone is a good device but one which is beginning to fall behind other smart phone OSs, and if I was Apple I would be working hard to get Flash, and other expected modern technologies working sooner rather than later.
I hope Flash never comes to the iPhone because Flash is a steaming pile of crap and it obviated by HTML5.
I agree, it causes so many issues on the mac.
Btw: NonVendorFan will love this article, since it gives him more fuel to rant about how good Flash is because majority of BIG smartphone makers/smartphone operating system providers are going to use Flash in their content.
Quantity does not always mean quality!
Damn.
If the day comes that iPhone supports Flash and there is no way to disable it, I may have to trash it.
Oh well, never mind, I certainly wont shed a tear.
My kids will. playhousedisney.com, pbskids.com, etc, are all Flash. The iPhone has to start supporting it or they will start to fail at their core competency, which is merging in with people's technological lifestyle. If iPhoneOS 4.0 doesn't support it I suspect the platform will start to stagnate.
Much as I love my iPhone, it's beginning to look a little old to me. The lack of flash is a big part of that, as mobile browsing isn't all that useful when you end up seeing an awful lot of those 'no flash plug in' icons on web pages.
Whose kool ade you drinking? it aint apple brand thats for sure.
I hope Flash never comes to the iPhone because Flash is a steaming pile of crap and it obviated by HTML5.
You think HTML5 will kill flash? I know you didn't say that exactly, but it won't.
Quantity does not always mean quality!
Exactly, you just have to look at Windows to see that!
My kids will. playhousedisney.com, pbskids.com, etc, are all Flash. The iPhone has to start supporting it or they will start to fail at their core competency, which is merging in with people's technological lifestyle. If iPhoneOS 4.0 doesn't support it I suspect the platform will start to stagnate.
Fair point but sites such as playhousedisney.com, pbskids.com will bend to better technologies eventually.
It's really in your and your kids best interest that Flash stays off the iPhone you know.
My kids will. playhousedisney.com, pbskids.com, etc, are all Flash. The iPhone has to start supporting it or they will start to fail ...
YMMV, but I don't think that there's all that many customers of iPhones who are under 10 years old.
I'm sure that there's plenty who want one, but they're just kind of ever-so-slightly reliant on their parents to pay the $1000/year AT&T bill.
And while I know that things change over time, I was able to vote before I was afforded a $500 toy.
-hh
So we get to miss out on hugely annoying flashy ads and silly games while continuing to enjoy open, non-proprietary ways of viewing HD video that the iPhone fully and almost every modern browser (save IE, where Flash could potentially be called useful) partially supports (which is increasing with every release)?
Damn.
If the day comes that iPhone supports Flash and there is no way to disable it, I may have to trash it.
Sorry guys but it'd be easy enough to deactivate flash if the phone supported it. In the meantime every website that has any kind of video uses flash so its a serious problem whether you want to admit it or not.
I love my iphone but having flash would make be upgrade immediately.
My kids will. playhousedisney.com, pbskids.com
Not being funny, but how many 4-10 year olds are going to be BUYING iPhones/iPod Touches? NONE!
Contrast that with how many adults will buy iPhones/iPod Touches for other things other than Flash video (which most sites have adapted to play nicely with the iPhone anyway) and you get a way bigger number.
I had cause to look around my Mac, and the files that were sprayed around the place by Adobe's flash was incredible.
Anyone concerned about privacy and "private browsing" should be concerned - there was pretty much a complete record in more than one place on my disk of every Flash site visited since whenever...
Why Adobe, why??
Sorry guys but it'd be easy enough to deactivate flash if the phone supported it. In the meantime every website that has any kind of video uses flash so its a serious problem whether you want to admit it or not.
Most Flash video websites tend to support the iPhone anyway, so it doesn't really matter.
If the people at Adobe are smart... and I'm not sure they are, they should develope their own app store for Mobile Flash and once and for all standardise app making across several mobile platforms using Mobile Flash, or mobile AIR or whatever...
I don't think they're smart though, or got the guts.
Mobile Flash.
Flash Air store. F-AIR.
The FAIR Store... damn it... sounds too good to be true..
Sorry guys but it'd be easy enough to deactivate flash if the phone supported it. In the meantime every website that has any kind of video uses flash so its a serious problem whether you want to admit it or not.
I love my iphone but having flash would make be upgrade immediately.
Flash would kill the battery and iPhone has a YouTube app. I would have said you were right when the iPhone came out, but after owning two of them I now see this argument as dead-wrong. YouTube has become the internet standard, and on the web wherever there is a YouTube video the iPhone OS can play it. Around 1/3 of the internet use YouTube everyday, we don't need no stinking Flash.