Adobe has announced their upcoming plans for Flash 10.1 on mobile devices, effectively defining the future of Flash support on smartphone platforms. According to the company, full Flash is coming to browsers on Android, Blackberry, Symbian, WebOS and Windows Mobile phones beginning in the middle of 2010. You read that right – there’s no iPhone on that list.
As it is, Apple is choosing to keep the iPhone a closed platform. That means no full Flash for Safari users, although Adobe has been granted some leeway on the applications area.
For the rest of the smartphone roster, beta versions of full Flash support will begin rolling out by the end of the year. Windows Mobile and webOS users get first crack, followed by Android and Symbian handset owners early in 2010. Blackberry is last in on the action, having only joined Adobe’s Open Screen project as of late.
What, exactly, can you expect with full Flash on your phone? You get full-featured execution of Flash videos and apps, HTTP streaming and support for mobile input models, including multi-touch, gestures and accelerometer movements. The prospect this creates for future Flash games is quite the event to imagine.
Even better, the new implementation lets you process streaming HD videos using the hardware GPU, which should put an end to the spotty playback currently available on the current crop of smartphones. Is mobile YouTube playback finally going to tip over this side of excellent? That’s what Adobe is gunning for. We’d know if it works soon enough.
via Gizmodo
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