Android leapfrogs past iPhone with Flash support
By Dave Jeyes
The HTC Hero will be the first Android phone to integrate Flash movies and Web navigation, moving to the head of the pack in supporting standards on the mobile Web. The good news for iPhone lovers is that maybe eating dust will be enough motivation to get Apple on board the Flash train.
The news about Flash coming to Android came out in the announcement of the highly anticipated HTC Hero phone this morning. The companies are still using a Flash Lite plugin on mobile devices to offer a subset of Flash’s full features on mobile devices.
Competing Handsets
Windows Mobile was the first major smartphone platform to support Flash. However it’s a standalone player and not integrated into the Web browsing experience. Also, Windows Mobile devices lag behind is in supporting JavaScript and AJAX.
Nokia Series 40 and S60 phones are also shipping with a standalone Flash player. However Symbian now supports JavaScript and AJAX which is a nice step up from Windows Mobile.
Next comes the Apple iPhone, with an outstanding Web browser that does a fantastic job of rendering the desktop Web including JavaScript and AJAX. It might be the best overall Web browsing experience, but Apple isn’t working to support Flash.
Android’s will be the first browser to support all of these technologies in an integrated Web browsing experience. Users will be able to use Flash navigation components on a mobile device for the first time and can load videos and games into full screen mode with a simple click as shown in this video by Adobe.
Flash 10 in October
This release may be more symbolic of Google’s commitment to supporting Web standards including Flash than anything else. Adobe is preparing to release a full version of Flash 10 for mobile devices as soon as October that will make Flash Lite obsolete.
Flash 10 is expected to be released for Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm’s new WebOS platforms and the Android platforms. The iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry devices are conspicuously absent from supporting Flash yet again.
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June 26th, 2009
If the flashlite is any indication, the full impleme ntation will wipe out battery life in short order. The palm pre and the latest “Eye” Phone will be toast….