During an appearance Monday at the Adobe MAX developer conference in San Francisco, Google's director of mobile platforms Andy Rubin, and Adobe Systems CTO Kevin Lynch announced the firms are collaborating to bring Adobe Flash technology to the Android mobile platform, illustrating their progress with a demo of Flash running on a HTC G1 handset. Adobe Flash already runs on multiple platforms including Symbian, SonyEricsson, Windows Mobile and Linux, shipping on more than 800 million mobile devices to date.
Of course, Adobe Flash does not run on Apple's iPhone--in an interview with TechCrunch, Adobe product manager Michele Turner would say only "We are working on Flash on the iPhone, but it is really up to Apple." Of course, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was blunt in his previous assessment of Flash technology, arguing the iPhone requires a media player more robust than the current Flash mobile solution. He added that while the Flash Player for laptops fits the bill, it is designed for devices larger than the iPhone, and therefore performs too slowly on handsets. "There's this missing product in the middle," Jobs said at the time.
In a more positive development for Adobe, on Monday the software provider announced a collaboration with digital solutions provider ARM to optimize and enable Adobe Flash Player 10 and Adobe AIR for mobile phones, mobile Internet devices, personal media players and other mobile computing devices, which the companies promise will accelerate mobile graphics and video capabilities across multiple platforms to bring rich web applications and services to mobile devices and consumer electronics. Per terms of the agreement, Adobe and ARM will deliver an optimized Adobe Flash Player 10 for the ARM architecture as well as industry-standard API support for GPUs and hardware accelerators. The firms add the partnership is expected to lower power consumption for mobile devices running Flash Player 10 and AIR content
The Adobe/ARM partnership springs out of Adobe's Open Screen Project, an industry initiative launched in May to foster a consistent Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR environment across desktop computers, mobile devices and set-top boxes to simplify the efforts of developers and content companies seeking to deliver a streamlined user experience. Adobe Flash Player 10 for ARMv6 and ARMv7 architecture-based hardware is expected to be available royalty-free for all Open Screen Project participants. Adobe will also make available to OEMs Flash Player 10 for ARM processor-based devices.
For more on the Flash/iPhone progress:
- read this TechCrunch article
