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Adobe Aug. 16 made its Flash Player 10.1 generally available for download on the Android Market for Google Nexus One phones.
For those scratching their heads because they believed Flash was already on the Nexus One, that was a beta launched to partners in June.
Before that, eWEEK’s Nicholas Kolakowski tested Flash and Android 2.2 running on the Nexus One and found it wanting.
But that was in May, when Android 2.2 was in a “pre-release” version hardly ready for public consumption. Flash Player 10.1 for Android 2.2 is now polished, wrote Adobe spokesperson Matt Rozen in a blog post.
Flash on the Nexus One joins Flash on the HTC Evo 4G, added with the Android 2.2 update from HTC; the HTC Desire, also included with the Android 2.2 update; and the
Motorola Droid 2, which shipped Aug. 12 preinstalled with Flash Player 10.1.
Rozen said the Android-based HTC Incredible, Samsung Galaxy S, Motorola Milestone, Motorola Droid X, Motorola Droid, Dell Streak and other mobile platforms to get Flash Player 10.1 over the next few weeks and months.
Some of those devices have been upgraded to Android 2.2 and others will be soon.
What all this means is that Android has taken on increased significance for Adobe, which was spurned this past spring by Apple, which labeled Flash and other Adobe technologies as insufficient for facilitating media for mobile Web devices such as the iPhone and iPad.
Indeed, CNET said Adobe convened an “Android Summit” to school media on how Flash and AIR are being tailored for Android phones, tablets, and televisions for Google TV.
There, Adobe revealed that Adobe AIR for Android will be released to the Android Market by the end of the year.
Android, not Apple, is the “apple” of Adobe’s eye for finding purchase on the mobile Web, at least until HTML5 corrals momentum and renders Flash obsolete.
Of course, Android’s own future seems shaky thanks to Oracle, barring a multibillion payout from Google.