Adobe Flash for Android?

Good news I guess. I was hoping for it by the end of the first quarter like they originally said. Now it is by the end of the year!

- Adobe has confirmed that it will demonstrate its eagerly awaited Flash Player 10.1 for smartphones at next week's Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

The player will be shown running on Google's Nexus One, Motorola's Droid and Palm's Pre handsets. However, question marks remain over Symbian and Windows Mobile support.

Flash Player 10.1 promises to bring the full Flash experience to most mobile devices for the first time. A beta has been available since October 2009, and the final release is due sometime in the first half of 2010, according to Adobe.

Anup Murarka, Adobe's director of technology strategy for the Flash Platform, said that MWC attendees will see Flash Player 10.1 on the Nexus One, Pre and Droid.

"Development betas are currently underway for Android, Windows Mobile, WebOS, and desktop operating systems," he added.

The Nexus One and Droid run Android versions 2.1 and 2.0 respectively, while the Pre runs Palm's own WebOS, indicating that these platforms at least will be supported.

Murarka said that he was "not sure" about which versions of Windows Mobile will be able to run Flash 10.1.

"We've done the initial work on Windows Mobile 6.5, and we're working with Microsoft to determine the best starting point, but it may end up as Windows Mobile 7," he said.

Microsoft has yet to announce when Windows Mobile 7 will be available.

Other platforms, including Symbian, are set to be supported, but Adobe will only be able to give a more detailed list closer to the launch.

Flash is "the only consistent runtime available across smartphones, netbooks, PCs and other web-connected devices", according to Murarka.

In fact, instead of referring to platforms, it is "easier to ask which specific devices will be supported", he explained, owing to issues with integration and certification by vendors.

However, Adobe expects Flash support on mobiles to grow rapidly, starting from about nine to 10 per cent of handsets this year, ramping up rapidly to at least half within two to three years, according to Murarka.

"We're continuing to work to get Flash on more platforms. It's installed on 98 per cent of all PCs now, and used by 85 per cent of the top web sites," he said.

Adobe claimed that 19 of the top 20 phone makers have committed to integrating Flash.

I want to know where these beta releases are hiding!
I wouldn't mind giving 1 a whirl!!!

- We reported  a few days back that the upcoming Flash Player 10.1 will only run on mobile devices that have ARM Cortex A8 chipsets. Now it’s confirmed. So what does this mean? Only 2 phones fulfill this hardware requirement: Google Nexus One and Motorola Droid. All other phones can enjoy Flash Lite at best.

Furthermore, Flash Player 10.1 is coming this month! (1st quarter of 2010). Adobe details 3 ways in which you can get Flash Player 10.1:

We reported a few days back that the upcoming Flash Player 10.1 will only run on mobile devices that have ARM Cortex A8 chipsets. Now it’s confirmed. So what does this mean? Only 2 phones fulfill this hardware requirement: Google Nexus One and Motorola Droid. All other phones can enjoy Flash Lite at best

Furthermore, Flash Player 10.1 is coming this month! (1st quarter of 2010). Adobe details 3 ways in which you can get Flash Player 10.1:

*  You can get Flash Player 10.1 which comes bundled with System Software Updates (Firmware/ROM updates)
*  By manually downloading through on-device catalog.
*  Downloading and Installing from The Adobe Flash site

Previously, Taimur demoed Farmville running on Google Nexus One and it was claimed that it’s using Flash Player 10.1 which was actually wrong and was confirmed by Adobe that it was actually running on Flash Lite and that was the reason why it was so dead slow.

Adobe clarified:

At Mobile World Congress Adobe demonstrated the full Flash Player (Flash Player 10.1) running on Android, Palm webOS and other mobile platforms. The HTC Desire will support Flash Player 10.1 once the runtime is available in the first half of 2010. Users will be able to upgrade the free player over the air. Until then the HTC Desire will ship with a new version of Flash Lite that supports ActionScript 3, and other new features. The Farmville demo shown on Redmondpie is using Flash Lite, not the full Flash Player.

- In what is a pretty damning statement, Adobe has released a video via their YouTube  account that’s promoting the idea of “One Web, Any Screen”. Obviously it’s a dig at Apple  and the iPad’s lack of Flash. A lot of people see the iPad’s lack of Flash as Steve Jobs trying to “storm the Flash castle” as they try to break the web’s dependence on Flash for tons of multimedia content.

Read: Adobe Shows Off Flash Running On Mobile Phones [Video Released From Adobe On iPad Shows Promotes "One Web", Shows Flash On Palm & Android Devices] » TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities
The video shows Flash running on various devices, including Dell laptops  and some non-iPad tablets. Also featured o the video were two Android  devices, the Nexus One and Motorola Droid, as well as the Palm Pre.

There’s been some question as to why Apple is blocking Flash on the iPad. Steve Jobs’ says that Flash has been a “CPU hog” and that it is too wasteful on battery life. Adobe says it has to do more with Apple’s closed garden system and them protecting app store profits. Certainly, if Flash 10.1 can run on the Palm Pre, it can run on the iPad (granted, before you hit the comment button – this was a prerendered video, probably with simulated screens, so we don’t know how well the Flash ran on the Pre).

This past Thursday, Apple put up a little web portal that promotes “iPad Ready” websites that (mostly) use HTML5 for their video instead of Flash. Some fear that this will create a chasm on the web. On that end, Adobe’s idea of “One Web, Any Screen” is pretty compelling. Just as long as that screen isn’t an iPad screen.

Read: Adobe Shows Off Flash Running On Mobile Phones [Video Released From Adobe On iPad Shows Promotes "One Web", Shows Flash On Palm & Android Devices] » TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities

Adube has opened up beta testing sign up here's the link http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/

- Adobe announced Tuesday it released Adobe Flash 10.1 to its mobile platform partners, with support coming to Android, Blackberry, WebOS, Windows Phones, Symbian, MeeGo and LiMo. What does that mean for you? Nothing, unless you have a Nexus One with Android 2.2 (serendipitously received over the air or installed manually).

Some day, Flash 10.1 will be available on all kinds mobile devices, but you may want to grab a Snickers, because it's not happening for a while. Everyone else will have to wait.

Android phone owners, who need Android 2.2 to run Flash 10.1, can check out this upgrade guide; the gist is that Motorola's Droid will be next in line -- date unspecified - and several other Android 2.1 phones will go Froyo within the next six months, or by year-end. It was once reported that Flash 10.1 would work on Android versions 2.1 and higher, but Adobe's announcement only mentions Android 2.2.

As for those other mobile platforms, think late 2010, early 2011. "We may not see a huge number of these devices available on Tuesday, but the pipeline for Christmas, CES, Mobile World Congress next year is really exciting," Anup Muraka, Adobe's director of technology strategy, told IDG News Service.

Folks eagerly waiting to play Farmville on their phones or watch video from the many content providers who use Flash should be used to the long wait. We started hearing some chatter about Flash 10 for mobile phones in 2008, with Adobe aiming for a late 2009 release. The idea was to have a beta out to developers by October of last year. The beta release window slipped to late 2009 for some devices and early 2010 for others. Reviewers finally got to try Flash 10.1 on the Nexus One last month.

With Flash 10.1 still months away for all but the Nexus One and possibly the Motorola's Droid, today's news of a release to partners is worth noting, but not worth getting excited about as a consumer. Proving Steve Jobs wrong will require a bit more patience.