Hey mobile phone, that’s not flashiness to see me. And so it went.
That’s changing. Today, Adobe announced it would ship its ubiquitous technology that transforms standard Web pages into sexy bits of motion for mobile phones. Currently, users need to rely on separate applications to play flash-based Web sites such as YouTube. But with the upcoming 10.1 release mobile phone users will be able to experience the full benefit without resorting to third party apps.
This is good news for owners of devices from RIM BlackBerry, Google Android, Palm (WebOS) and Nokia (Symbian).
If, however, you own an iPhone, you’re out of luck.
Still a holdout, Apple refuses to load Flash onto its iPhones citing heavy performance requirements. Apparently, however, this is not impacting Apple’s sales in any way, shape or form.
In addition, Adobe today also announced the expansion of the Open Screen Project launched last year. Not to be confused with movie screens, this industry initiative goal is to “enable consumers to engage with rich Internet experiences seamlessly across any device, anywhere.”
42 partners are on board (an “ecosystem”) and include some heavyweight names: Disney, MTV, Google, Intel, Verizon, Cisco, LG Electronics, Motorola, Texas Instruments, NBC, Samsung, Toshiba, Nokia, and RIM among others.
“With Flash Player moving to new mobile platforms, users will be able to experience virtually all Flash technology based Web content and applications wherever they are,” said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “We are excited about the broad collaboration of close to 50 industry leaders in the Open Screen Project and the ongoing collaboration with 19 out of the top 20 handset manufacturers worldwide. It will be great to see first devices ship with full Flash Player in the first half of next year.”