At the MAX conference in Los Angeles Adobe is is demonstrating Flash Player 10.1 for smartphones, a version of mobile Flash that delivers faster rendering, lower memory consumption and all for less battery drain. A beta is expected to be available for Windows Mobile, Palm webOS and desktop systems including Windows, Macintosh and Linux later this year. Public betas for Google Android and Symbian OS are expected to be available in early 2010. In addition, Adobe and RIM announced a joint collaboration to bring Flash Player to Blackberry smartphones, and Google joined up for the Open Screen Project initiative. Flash Player 10.1 is the first consistent runtime release of the Open Screen Project that enables uncompromised Web browsing of expressive applications, content and high definition (HD) videos across devices. New mobile-ready features that take advantage of native device capabilities include support for multi-touch, gestures, mobile input models, accelerometer and screen orientation. Take a look at a demo on a Palm Pre here. “We’ve been working with some great partners including Nvidia and ARM to optimize the player for those devices and create a quality mobile experience,” said Adobe Flash developer, Ryan Stewart. 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.” Missing from the line-up – at least so far – is Apple. Take a look at what Harry McCracken has to say about that – is Flash support on phones a promise for a multimedia future, or just going to end up meaning those annoying Flash-based ads will also play on your phone, sucking your battery power? McCracken argues that iPhone users are steadily becoming less interested in Flash on the iPhone, as they have thousands of Apps to keep them entertained.
