Comments on: Adobe's Flash to ship on new Android phone

Adobe gains an important mobile-phone beachhead for its Flash technology: HTC's upcoming Android-powered Hero phone due to start shipping next month.

[DMAN3k]

Death to Flash (and Silverlight). Long live HTML5!

Flash seriously uses way too much power.

[forever4now]

I agree that HTML5 (video especially) should be used wherever possible, to conserve smartphone battery life, but being able to play existing Flash content (videos, 1000s of games, etc.) on Android is a real bonus, in the mean time.

Flash support will likely be even more important for Android smartbooks/netbooks, since users are likely to expect a comparable browsing experience to their current desktop browser.

[gerrrg]

Well, isn't that why it took so long for Adobe to create a version for mobile?

[almo-8]

You've got to be kidding. Obviously not a web developer.

If you're interested in going beyond expressing such subjective feelings and educating yourself about where the Web development market is heading (and where the buzz is), this may offer some interesting data to get started:

"Adobe Flash": http://www.google.com/trends?q=%22Adobe+flash%22&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
"Microsoft Silverlight": http://www.google.com/trends?q=%22Microsoft+Silverlight%22&ctab=-1&geo=all&date=all
22&ctab=333247712&geo=all&date=all
"HTML": http://www.google.com/trends?q=HTML&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

With all respect, if you had followed W3C work on HTML 5 you'd understand that it offers some improvements but still only a fraction of the functionality readily available in Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight today. Besides that, consider that the HTML/JavaScript/CSS "standards" are implemented differently by all browsers, making it an increadibly tedious task to implement sophisticated and professional web applications using said technologies. Now, let's add HTML5 to that mix. yay!

On your reference to Flash "requiring too much power", well--that's a generalization that needs to be clarified. But if the reference is in regards to Flash Video, you may have missed the news that Flash Video is becoming a standard that will be supported by the chipsets used by all major TV manufacturers. Also, NVIDIA is releasing a chipset that will support Flash Video for computers. Besides that I'm not sure what power issues you may be referring to.

[cvaldes1831]

I think DMAN3k is referring to power consumption on handheld devices (like the Android phone described in this blog entry).

Whether or not Flash Video runs on a TV set is irrelevant to this discussion. They're plugged into the wall for power.

[almo-8]

Agreed, and that's why a clarification is warranted. The term "power" is frequently mis-used in the context of CPU performance these days, hence the reference to the Flash Video becoming a standard natively supported in new TVs and PC graphics chipsets.

[El_Segfaulto]

Flash is the bane of the online browsing world. Websites that use Flash for navigation should be avoided. Advertisements that utilize Flash for animations that draw the eye away from the content are insidious. I do not want Flash on my G1 unless I can block it and only allow what I explicitly want.

[brigz0067]

Yes HTML5 might threaten Flash, but it will take years for that to happen. Given Adobe's prominence in web applications, it's hard to imagine Flash will ever go away. Flash draws a wide range of processing power depending on the application and framerate, just as any program in any language. Saying that is "uses way too much power" is just ignorant. What bothers me is why do they only allow AS2 and not AS3? Kinda a moot point that it supports Flash if it doesn't support the latest language.

[FourWheelVibe]

With regard to AS3 support, this will be available once Flash Player 10 is deployed to mobile devices. The Android HTC Hero is initially going to market with Flash Lite which only supports AS2. Adobe's roadmap for Open Screen is to enable/require the participating partners to provide OTA updates to the Player therefore once Player 10 is released the device manufacturers and carriers will be able to push out the new Player. Based on details from Adobe, Flash Player 10 will start shipping on devices in early 2010 so it's not that far off. Also keep in mind that about 80% of Flash apps on the web today still leverage AS2 so this first step with Flash Lite will cover a large percentage of the existing apps.

[seven7dust]

another annoyance of flash is the annoying flash ads like smileys etc
that consume CPU resources and slow everything down
plus they take up bandwidth on a already slow 3g connection !

for this to work they need to be a quick access setting to turn it of and on
or I can see it back firing big time !

[almo-8]

Good point, but let's imagine what may happen, years from now, when HTML 5 finally scratches the surface of what Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight is capable of today.

1. Google's bread and butter (web advertisement) will still be there.
2. Some ads will be made in HTML 5 (now that it is getting slightly more sophisticated and can actually support it).

[V_RocKs]

Wow. What a slap in the face for current G1 owners.

No wonder why the G1 is rooted by a higher percentage of its owners than the iPhone.

[Mr. Dee]

Flash is a nuisance but necessary at times. They need to work on its performance though. Its enough to bring a Quad Core machine with 8 GBs of RAM and 1 GB video card to its knees.

[Perry_Clease]

Spot on!

[monkeyfun14]

Oh yes especially anything that has any sort of physics.

[taylor_wimberly]

It might not be available as an official download for Android, but I'm sure the mod community will extract it and compile it in their custom builds.

[DevSkills]

Flash must not be that bad if everyone is trying to copy it.

[monkeyfun14]

It is that bad silverlight is kicking its ass and HTML5 is poised to take a bite out of it.

[CreativeMalcolm]

I confess I'd love to see Adobe really start making flash quicker and less of a processor hog. On Windows it's not so bad but on the Mac even doing simple stuff can suddenly get my MacBook pretty dang hot. It's pretty bad when playing an online game makes my machine run hotter than high end work in their pro apps.