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Adobe brings full-fat Flash to mobile devices

By Barry Collins

Posted on 5 Oct 2009 at 07:06

Adobe has unveiled the first full version of its Flash player for mobile devices.

Smartphones have, until now, been left to use a stripped-down Flash Lite player. Now the company is set to deliver full Flash functionality to a series of mobile devices over the coming months, as part of its drive to "reach users wherever they are".

Adobe says it hopes to bring Flash Player 10.1 to Windows Mobile and Palm WebOS devices before the end of the year, with support for Symbian S60 and Google's Android arriving in the early part of 2010. The company has also signed a deal with RIM to develop a BlackBerry version of the software.

The elephant in the room is, of course, Apple's iPhone OS, which is the only major smartphone OS that has been omitted from the announcement. Adobe has said in the past that it's working hard to persuade Apple to include support for Flash on the iPhone.

The arrival of the fully-featured Flash player will, according to Adobe, bring "uncompromised web browsing of expressive applications, content and high definition (HD) video" to mobile devices. The software will tap the device's GPU to help accelerate graphics performance, although Adobe insists this won't have a hugely detrimental effect on battery life.

The software will include support for multitouch, gesture controls and accelerometers, so that mobile users aren't tied to desktop-like interfaces when using web applications, for instance.

In addition to mobile phones, Flash Player 10.1 will be rolled out across netbooks and standard PCs. It's the fruition of Adobe's Open Screen Project, which aims to achieve a consistent experience across different devices.

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User comments

Glad I switched...

Makes me even more glad I switched from Windows Mobile to the iPhone!

I just can't see the need to open up the smartphone to even more security risks, drain the battery quicker and make web sites even less readable...

Flash has its place, but not on mobile devices, or information web sites for that matter...

By big_D on 5 Oct 2009

well I have the iPhone too but there's been loads of websites that use Flash that I've wanted to view. I'd consider switching when my contract runs out although I'd test a new phone to death. The previous trial I had, no phone came close to Apple's.

By TimoGunt on 5 Oct 2009

x64

Would have been nice to see a proper version for x64 bit operating systems.

Flash is essential on mobile devices as more and more sites use flash content, not necessarily for video but for a wide range of other things too such as interfaces and simple navigation.

By amhoyle1 on 5 Oct 2009

The problem is, most sites which use Flash for navigation could achieve the same effects with a couple of lines of CSS, making them platform independent.

I always install FlashBlock on new machines and only allow the bits of flash I actually need. About 95% of the Flash objects I find in a page never get run...

A lot of Flash is just there because "a site isn't complete without a Flash element"... :-(

By big_D on 5 Oct 2009