Flash 10 coming to most smartphones in 2010

BARCELONA--A full-fledged version of the Adobe Flash player is coming soon to a whole slew of smartphones. Unfortunately, Apple's iPhone isn't one of them.

Adobe announced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress here Monday that Flash Player 10, which is the full version of Flash that runs on PCs, will be available on smartphones running Windows Mobile, Google's Android, Nokia S60/Symbian, and the new Palm operating systems. Devices with Flash Player 10 are expected to hit the market starting in early 2010.

The company has worked for years on a lightweight incarnation of its Flash technology for mobile phones. Adobe executives said that about 40 percent of all phones that are shipped today use this version of its technology. But because Flash Lite doesn't allow for the same functionality as what's available on the Flash 10 desktop version of the technology, mobile users are missing out.

In November, Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch told attendees at Adobe's Max conference in San Francisco that the company would bring the full-fledged Flash Player 10 to smartphones.

Even though Flash 10 will be available for most smartphones early next year, the technology still remains on the wish list for iPhone users. But Adobe executives say that it's coming.

"We would love to see it on the iPhone, too," said Anup Murarka, director of Technology Strategy and Partner Development for Adobe. "But it's Apple's decision on when and how they support any new technology. So we will continue to work on it."

Adobe's CEO Shantanu Narayen alluded in comments he made to the Bloomberg news service at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this month that the company has had technical difficulties finding a workable version of Flash for the iPhone. But he said the two companies were continuing to work on it.

"It's a hard technical challenge, and that's part of the reason Apple and Adobe are collaborating," Narayen told Bloomberg Television. "The ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver."

[Voice_Of_Logic]

"its Flash technology"??? huh? Its Macromedia's technology and Adobe, the company that makes that piece of garbage technology called PDF, which never ceases to stall or crash PC's, doesnt know the first thing about how to extend Flash.

[bob_dango]

Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005.

[tm_anon]

Actually, PDF is a great format. It's standardized and fully capable of being read on every OS I'm aware of. The piece of garbage is the Adobe PDF Reader. If you're on Windows and you're using it then you really need to switch to Foxxit. It's smaller and works faster. You just won't be able to open the PDF directly in your browser. Of course, that's not exactly a bad thing. If you can get the file opened faster in a seperate program and still be able to move around in your browser, why wouldn't you?

[cristianodiaz]

If you are going to be that technical, it wasn't Macromedia's either - they bought FutureWave and renamed their product FutureSplash to Flash. I do agree about Adobe not knowing what they are doing though - it is a shame they bought out Macromedia.

[jz33040]

One problem (of several technical issues) is the processor in the iphone isn't fast enough to handle all the features of the desktop technology. But they can probably get it to work somehow in some limited fashion.. Or maybe not.... Still, iphone will have to play catch up to newer phones and just accept it's not 1st to have v10. But all apple worshipers seem to think everyone copies apple, so this will create some conflicts, lol.

[seven7dust]

they said it depends on Apple's approval !
so you never know the Iphone might get it too !
the Iphone processor may not be the fastest but it's fast enough,
look at all the 3d games on the Iphone !
and as far as copying goes Everyone thinks so ,not just Apple fans
look at all those App store announcements from Nokia,Metoosoft and samsung
and all the Tech news reporters always mention the Iphone in any new phone launch
like it or not ,the Iphone has become the standard by which other phones r judged

[curiousCitizen]

Good point.

Here is another interesting technology from Citrix which may help overcome this limitation. Take a look at
http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/ruiguoy/2009/02/20/Video+Demo+Flash+on+iPhone+via+Citrix

[chrisfrary]

I agree, they can't even get flash 10 to work correctly on linux, let us see how they will incorporate it on devices that have limited memory and resources.

[lil-yankee]

I think that apple and quicktime will do something about that.
with the iphone commanding 51 percent of U.S smartphones sold in 2008, i dont see why they wont get support.
As an apple user of macs, and iphone, history shows that apple is always one step further; in front lol.

[monkeyfun14]

@lil-yankee

51%?

It barely holds one

[random truth]

@monkeyfun14
It holds 1% of all mobile phones in the world. Which is 51% of the U.S. smartphone market. Big difference...

[g8crapachino]

@lil-yankee, got any actual actual evidence to back up this inflated "51%" share you claim they have?....because the best evidence available at several sites only say 12~13%. Since Apple limited themselves to specific providers, such as AT&T in the US, it's actually impossible for them to gain more then a quarter of the worldwide market unless they either expand to other network providers, or alot of people suddenly switched mobile providers. Untill then you are talking out of your ass.

[seven7dust]

Actually yr wrong it hold 51% of the ad requests from Admob
thats not market-share {wat that shows is that the Iphone is the King of Internet Browsing}

Us smartphone market-share is something like 20-23% a distant 2nd to RIM's 46% !
Although Impressive considering it's sold only on 1 carrier at a hefty Price !

Worldwide is 1.14% which is more than HTC's with all their models combined
Again Very Impressive considering the Price and the fact that it was Introduced only 2 yrs back !

[random truth]

Yea, I dont know. I was just pointing out the difference between the two markets. Honestly i could not care less about how much marketshare something has.

[AppleSuxLeo]

The main reason iPhone does not have Flash support is that it`s CPU is to weak. And that Steve Jobs deemed Flash is bad for you (iPhone users) Sux to be reliant on Apple`s "walled garden".

[flickrz]

And you think Flash is open source? It is as much a walled garden as either silverlight or quicktime.
The truth is; flash is a resource hog and is not fit for mobile devices.

[random truth]

@flickrz
I would definintely agree with you. They have not even made a version that works satisfactory on any software besides windows. Which flash will work fine in at the same proccessor speed of the iphone.

[No invasion of privacy]

Um, the CPUs in other Smartphones are not exactly very impressive either so your comment is completely spurious when talking about a mobile version of Flash. If other smartphones of today are (allegedly) capable of having a functional Flash 10 player, then the iPhone is more than capable of doing so too. However, I suspect Adobe is blowing gas here - I very much doubt they have anything that is capable of playing Flash media in anywhere near a respectable manner on any of the current hardware. It might work when it is released on the phones of early 2010 (i.e. ones with much beefier specs than exist today) but I doubt it does on the phones of today.

[thelemurking]

What? The iPhone/iPod Touch's CPU is too weak? Yet Flash will be coming out to a lot of smart phones by the end of the year? Surely you are not suggesting that all these other smart phones out there can out perform the iPhone.

[irperez]

Hey, I'm happy, I have a windows mobile device that can play flash and silverlight sites. I have hulu, youtube, and other sites in my hand and I'm lovin it.

[irperez]

Oh and I forogot to mention that I can view full page websites using skyfire web browser.

[tm_anon]

Good luck syncing your device with any OS other than Windows. I'm guessing you also have a Zune, Windows server, PC running Windows, MS laptop and anything else MS could talk you into buying. Either you're rich or you're just not very smart with how you spend your money and you don't care about being locked in.

[viper396]

@ tm_anon , in a world where 90% of the desktops run Windows do you really think your argument about being locked in has any real relevence? The odds are very high that he won't have any problems syncing to any PC he needs to connects to. Work, home, and laptop; the odds are they're all running Windows. The odds are everybody he knows is also running windows. The odds are the random people he passes on the street are also running windows. In fact, if he had a Blackberry or iPhone, he'd still have a better chance of syncing with a Windows system then a linux machine. He even has a better chance of syncing up with a Mac then a linux machine. The perception you're trying to convey that Linux suddenly unlocks you and allows you to sync with any PC is simply false in today's world. It actually narrows one down drastically.

As for implying that one must be rich to use Windows, that was just a stupid way to convince any person to switch OS'es. You basically just said that a heck of alot of people are rich. Try again.

[seven7dust]

@tm_Anon
Wats so wrong with being locked in ?
if he likes it thats good for him !
and why is it expensive again ???
Windows can used on low end computers
WinMo devices cost very little and sync costs nothing !
BTW I'm a Mac guy who hates Window Mobile !
but I'm just saying let people use wat they wan't !

also Skyfire is pretty cool mobile browser it can view almost n e site on the web !
but it's not enough to consider using WinMO IMO
maybe when it comes out on Android I'll jump ship !

[Magallanes]

Yesterday i was playing a flash 10 animation, its take 80% of my cpu and i own a amd 5000+ dual core.

So, even if Adobe was able to put flash 10 in cellphone, still there are not a warranty that you can see all webpage without any kind of trouble.

[AppleSuxLeo]

At the GSMA Mobile World Congress, Palm has confirmed to join the Open Screen Project - which will bring Adobe Flash Player on the new Palm webOS platform. Led by Adobe, the Open Screen Project includes industry leaders working together to provide a consistent runtime environment and user experience across mobile phones, desktops, and other consumer electronics devices. The initiative addresses the challenges of web browsing on a broad range of devices, and removes the barriers to publishing content and applications seamlessly across screens.

[gerrrg]

2010 is too late for mobile support; they should have had it prepared for 2009.

At the speed Adobe is moving, it's as though they're not concerned about losing Flash as a marketplace leader.

[elllroy]

apple drives the pundits crazy. there is a strategic war going on here (i think the technical problems could be resolved soon). apple doesn't want flash to be the video-standard on the web. it wants the open, non proprietary h.264 to be successful. (it even convinced google to re-encode the youtube library to that format to be playable on the iphone.)

in 2010/2011 50-100 million people will surf the web on the iphone/ipod touch platform. hence the power to simply not supporting a technology which apple doesn't want to be successful.

of course this drives all the pundits crazy. how has apple become so powerful to even try such a feat?

what is difficult to understand though is that the pundits aren't on apple's side. isn't an open standard supposed to be better than a proprietary technology? maybe not in any case.

[ktswami]

Does anyone see any breathless, all-caps reporting on actually VIEWING flash sites on phones? Opera Mini/Mobile supports Flash Lite, and have for years. I think Android supports Flash Lite. Who cares. Use those phones, if you need to view the flash ads and drain your battery.

This is just a non-story to beat up on Apple (while they slowly kill Flash and move to ECMAscript/CSS animations as a replacement, and H.264 for video). Game over.

[gwhiz2K]

Care to back this up with some facts? Yes, you can do some things with JavaScript (no-one uses ECMAScript) and CSS, but Flash/ActionScript is much more powerful, and not plagued by compatibility issues that browsers have to deal with. Browsers still aren't supporting CSS 3 properly.

Years ago everyone was talking about SVG replacing Flash, and that still hasn't happened. Flash isn't going anywhere soon. Far from game over.

[gwhiz2K]

You can download Flash 7 for mobile right now. I have it running on my Touch Diamond. It's not the best though, as many flash movies are version 8 or greater. Any "filter" effects won't show up in 7.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Generally when Apple drags its feet to allow anything new to the iPhone that would add to its usefulness or add features, it's because they have their own plans to do it themselves.

[dascha1]

AMN to that! As an Apple contest participant back in the early 90's I was awarded a simple gray t-shirt for my entry, and then heard nothing from them. Six years later they introduced their own version of it and left me with just that crumby t-shirt. It still seems to be about snuff the person who gets there first.

[faceless128]

Why is the iPhone considered to be a SmartPhone? it's about as 'Smart' as the Samsung Instinct. I agree that a *jailbroken* iPhone can be considered a smartphone, but one that isn't jailbroken is just as dumb as any other non-Smartphone.

[happajay]

The smartphone industry is fairly focused around applications being the future of smartphones. Only google android and iphone have any meaningful way of giving consumers an easy way to find useful applications for their phones. Microsoft, simbian and Blackberry are all' talking' about opening application store, but it is still just vaporware. Nobody really owns an android phone, and it shows in the lack of applications in it's store. In the hospitals where I work, everybody has iphones from doctors down to technicians. Everybody is downloading applications like crazy. Never even seen an android in the wild. It's a computer geek phone and not remotely close to mass consumer appeal. All the other phones are not smart, since they are still living the 'toaster' phone model.....bigger higher pixel cameras, mms stuff, and stupid crap like that. People want small laptops to carry around in their pockets with apps to customize the phone to their needs. That is the future and other than the android, their are no other smart phones

[PastorVor]

I disagree. I think the future of computing is web based/mesh style and the days of the huge apps are numbered. Now days people want all of their "computers" to share data seamlessly, including their phone. Only the web will do that. That's why this flash thing is so big. Anything that helps make browsing the web from a smartphone as good as browsing from a desktop is a big deal. In the future I see a smartphone using apps like Live docs/google docs and other web based apps along with mesh services and such. The app store will be a place to buy accounts for web based apps, not downloaded apps.
It may seem like Flash 10 compatability is not a huge issue, but it is. Right now it is the biggest thing that is wrong with portable browsing. It's the thing that makes phone browsers stop working and the number of Flash based websites is huge!
Want some other technology? Something better? Then you have to change what is being used on the web, not what is being installed on the computers. If every webmaster dropped flash and started using silverlight then we would be discussing how important it is to get silverlight on our phones and not talking about this Flash upgrade.

For this reason I think WM has an advantage. Sure, it's a terrible OS right now. It's hard to use and configure and is basically a big steaming pile of ......, but that will change. It will get better. And as long as Microsoft rules the roost on the web then they are going to have a huge advantage in the phone market. Everyone else will have to match them.
Keep your eyes open for full Live.com compatability and mobile access to Live Docs and other Live apps.
That's your future.

[scottecher]

by thelemurking February 16, 2009 11:48 AM PST
What? The iPhone/iPod Touch's CPU is too weak? Yet Flash will be coming out to a lot of smart phones by the end of the year? Surely you are not suggesting that all these other smart phones out there can out perform the iPhone.

*******
The only thing iPhone can outperform other smartphones in is bloating an app store. Flick technology is becoming standard (and capacitive-touch technology, for that matter) on a good number of smartphone brands and products. Granted, the Apple brand "owns" video-viewing technology but other brands have their own achievemnets as well.