Microsoft and Adobe are apparently working together to ensure
that Windows Phone 7 Series supports Flash Player 10.1, according to a blog
posting by an Adobe executive. Enabling that support could possibly counter
February reports that the first generation of Microsoft’s new smartphone
operating system would lack Flash, which activates rich content on a variety of
popular Websites.
"One thing I wanted to clarify as it may have been lost in
some of the other news is that Adobe and Microsoft are working together to bring
Flash Player 10.1 to Internet Explorer Mobile on the Windows Phone 7 Series,"
Mike Chambers, Adobe’s principal product manager for developer relations for the
Flash platform, wrote in a March 9 posting on his personal
blog. "I don’t have an ETA or other specifics right now, but it is
something that both Adobe and Microsoft are working closely together
on."
That statement echoes a Feb. 15 e-mail to eWEEK from an Adobe
spokesperson, which read, "While the newest version of Windows Phone won’t
support Flash at initial availability, both companies are working to include a
browser plug-in for the full Flash player in future versions of Windows Phone.
More details will be shared at Microsoft MIX next month."
During the Windows Phone 7 Series rollout at a Feb. 15 press
conference in Barcelona, Microsoft executives indicated that devices running the
operating system would lack Flash support at the outset. Microsoft
CEO Steve Ballmer indicated during that conference that "we have no objection to
Adobe Flash support," which could be interpreted as a dig against Apple CEO
Steve Jobs and his reported refusal to allow Flash onto the iPad.
At a January "town hall" meeting at Apple headquarters, CEO
Steve Jobs allegedly suggested that Flash was buggy and that HTML5 was the
Internet’s future for delivering rich content to Websites. That led to an
immediate response from Adobe, with
a member of the company’s marketing team writing in a Jan. 27 corporate blog
posting that, "Without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access
the full range of Web content, including over 70 percent of games and 75 percent
of video on the Web."
Apple’s shunning of Flash for both the iPhone and iPad has
opened the door, at least in some of its competitors’ minds, to create a
competitive differentiator. In
a March 8 posting on Hewlett-Packard’s Voodoo blog, Phil McKinney, HP’s vice
president and chief technology officer for the Personal Systems Group, wrote
that, "A big bonus for [HP’s upcoming tablet PC] is that, being based off
Windows 7, it offers full Adobe support."
McKinney added: "With this slate product, you’re getting a
full Web browsing experience in the palm of your hand. No watered-down Internet,
no sacrifices."
But whether the lack of Flash actually becomes a decisive
factor in the battle between Apple and its competitors remains to be seen.
Windows Phone 7 Series devices are scheduled to debut sometime near the end of
2010.
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