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Flash Limited to Android 2.1?

Categories: Android, Multimedia
By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 11:48 AM

We’ve already seen Flash running on the Nexus One, but apparently other devices running anything less than Android 2.1 won’t support it. Call it a hardware bottleneck, but the droid and Nexus One are the only devices out there presently that will run Flash 10.1. Along with Android, Windows Mobile and webOS plug-ins will be available in the first half of this year, likely with BlackBerry not too far behind.

If the limitation is strictly software-based, then it won’t be all lost – upcoming devices like the X10, which are launching with Android 1.6, will likely be able to upgrade to 2.1, and potentially support Flash. I’m not seeing where Adobe made the announcement of this limitation to 2.1, but in the same breath, they also forecasted that over half of smartphones will be packing Flash by 2012. Now, who wants to take bets that the iPhone will get it by then?

About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.

  • OhhJohnny

    I don’t think Apple’s going to budge on Flash. They love being the main (some say only) content provider on the iPhone.

  • Katie Mansfield

    Everyone is worrying about Flash, but I think it’s more important that mobile handsets have the ability to run HTML5, which gives similar functionality.

    The Webkit-based browsers all have HTML5 functionality, such as the Android browser, webOS browser, and Apple’s Safari. BlackBerry will soon release a Webkit browser.

    The problem is Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, which has browser based on the old Internet Explorer 6, the same browser that governments in Europe are telling their populations not to use. It does not conform to web standards, let alone HTML5.

  • BrianK

    The transition to HTML 5 will be slow, and I doubt it will really ever be complete. Flash is better in a few ways, believe it or not. Games for example have pretty poor performance under HTML 5, and people won’t want to write them until something changes.

    Now, apple is plenty happy about that I’m sure, since I fully believe they only refuse to support Flash because it would side-door the app store, and we all know how they like to iron fist those itunes profits. On that note, I don’t think any iphone, pad or pod will have Flash support by 2012, not if stevo is still alive. He’s a bitter stubborn old man.

    • Krishan

      Nonsense. HTML5 uses WebGL to render 3D and 2D, which will always be faster than Flash to render stuff.