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Google has Adobe’s back when it comes to Flash, AIR

By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 at 3:03 PM

That hot thing Apple may have dumped Flash and AIR on the iPhone but Adobe seems to have found a nice rebound. In a blog post today, Google’s Andy Rubin, the godfather of Android, reiterated the company’s commitment to these web technologies.

“Google is happy to be partnering with Adobe to bring the full web, great applications, and developer choice to the Android platform,” Rubin said in a blog post. “Our engineering teams have been working closely to bring AIR and Flash Player to Google’s mobile operating system and devices. The Android platform is enjoying great adoption, and we expect our work with Adobe will help that growth continue.”

This isn’t much of a surprise as we’ve already seen Adobe look for beta testers on Android but I think this is a good public pat on the back from the search giant. We also know Google will be building Flash into its Chrome OS tablets too.

If you don’t know by now, Apple doesn’t want Flash on the iPhone OS because it is supposedly buggy and a resource drain. Cynics will also say it creates an often-free alternative to the App Store and iTunes, as well. It’s not just the end user who’s feeling this pinch either, as Apple has also banned developers from using Flash compiler tools to create apps for Apple’s mobile platform. This doesn’t seem to be bothering many developers or publishers though, as many are willing to adapt in order to reach this highly-desirable user base.

Google is playing it smart here. If Adobe’s tech works really well on Android, this will be an easy way to stand out from the iPhone. If it turns out to not be as smooth as on the desktop (which isn’t always that smooth), Google’s platform will still be able to access HTML5 content.

[Via Adobe Blog, photo]

About The Author

Marin Perez

Marin Perez has torture tested cell phones and smartphones for industry leaders like CNET and InformationWeek. He remembers when 4G was just a screen on PowerPoint presentations and is fascinated with the amount of innovation out there. Marin has spent a lot of time with BlackBerry and Android but he finally broke down a bought an iPhone to see what all the hype's about. He also has too many tablets.

  • ACE

    ahahaha, funny pic

  • Marin Perez

    Saw it on Twitter yesterday, been dying to use it in a post.

  • jwm

    Funny, that Apple survived near death from 1993 thru 2003 by developing a marketing strategy 100% around designers who almost all used Adobe software at that time. If Adobe would have played those same games and did not offer an Apple platform software, Apple would NOT have existed past the tech bubble crash. Thanks to Adobe maintaining their position to designers, Apple was kept alive. Apple should be very thankful for Adobe’s support (life support) when Apple was on it’s death bed.