Adobe is preparing mobile Flash Player to run on Google's Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, over the next few weeks.
Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) may be winding down the clock on its
mobile Flash multimedia software, but it's still going to be available to
support Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) new Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich"
smartphones and tablets.
It's fair to call support for ICS mobile Flash Player's
swan song, as Greg DeMichillie, senior director of product management for
Interactive Development at Adobe, told
eWEEK:
"Adobe will release one more version of the Flash
Player for mobile browsing, which will provide support for Android 4.0, and one
more release of the Flash Linux Porting Kit-both expected to be released
before the end of this year. After that time, Adobe will continue to provide
critical bug fixes and security updates."
After that, you can expect to see Adobe's Interactive
Development team kick the creation of multimedia-enabling software kits for
HTML5, Flash's eventual replacement, into high gear. Indeed, as
Danny Winokur, vice president and general manager of interactive development at
Adobe, said in a blog post Nov. 9:
"HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile
devices, in some cases exclusively. This makes HTML5 the best solution for
creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms. We are
excited about this, and will continue our work with key players in the HTML community,
including Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM, to drive HTML5 innovation they can
use to advance their mobile browsers."
IDC analyst Al Hilwa told
eWEEK about Adobe's ICS
announcement:
"Adobe seems to have clarified its position a bit more
precisely on when mobile Flash R&D might wind down. Clearly they are
committed to critical bug support, but my sense of it is that Adobe would love
it if Google would grab the R&D mantle for Flash in Android and take it
forward as an integrated part of the platform."
That is unlikely to happen.
As supportive as Google was
of Flash in talking to the press since it began supporting mobile Flash Player
on Android 2.2 "Froyo" smartphones and tablets since 2010, the
company did so largely because it was holding to the OEM line that Flash was a
core differentiator from Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone and iPad, which do not
support Flash.
As eWEEK already noted, Google is quite, yet quietly, excited about the discontinuation of mobile Flash. The company has been retooling some of its core applications, such as
Google Docs, Gmail and Calendars, around HTML5 for the last two years.
Google is experimenting with some of the prettier,
eye-candy elements of HTML5 for its Chrome Web browser. Indeed, Chrome Experiments is a showcase for creative
Web experiments, most of which are built with the HTML5 and other newfangled
technologies of its ilk.
In the meantime, Verizon Wireless is expected to launch the Samsung Galaxy Nexus ICS phone in the United States within the next two weeks. Presumably, Flash will come to the phone shortly after that; by the time the Galaxy Nexus arrives, there will only be a few more weeks until the new year.
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