Adobe Flash Player 10.1: A transition for mobile applications

Adobe Systems Incorp, California based company has announced a new Flash player for Smartphones, Macs and other mobile internet devices, called Flash Player 10.1. The new version will be available by the first half of the next year and it is the first time that users will get the identical version of Flash on mobile and PC systems. Also, the company provides facility to download Flash directly on the phone rather than bundling with the operating system.

Compatibility of new Flash Player

Flash Player 10.1 will run Adobe AIR applications directly on Smartphones. However, the application would not be available on every Smartphone operating system. The list of operating system includes Symbian Series 60, Android, Windows Mobile, Palm WebOS and others will shortly join the list. According to the company, a Beta version for WinMo 6.5 and Palm WebOS will be available by 2009 end, while for Android and Symbian operating system would arrive early in 2010.

The present version of Adobe flash player (Flash Player 10) was launched back in 2008 and now about 40% of new handsets have the basic Flash Lite technology. Further, users can expect full Flash player in all upcoming Smartphones from next year. The company has been also working with RIM for future availability of its Flash Player on Blackberry Smartphones.

Flash Player 10.1: Boon for Smartphone users

The new Adobe Flash technology will offer a key experience on new Windows based mobile phones and other Smartphones. It will enable Smartphone users to enjoy rich Flash based games, streaming videos and other interactive Web content on the move. The company also said that the new flash player will offer uncompromised Web browsing applications, content and high definition videos on future Smartphones without consuming much mobile’s battery.  

Flash Player 10.1 will also help consumers to use mobile-specific features such as multi-touch, gestures and the accelerometer. The new platform will be supported by various mobile vendors.  Nokia has already shipped more than 400 million phones with existing Flash technology and will support the new Flash technology in mobiles and other internet devices, the company said.

Besides 50 other companies, Google may also join the Adobe’s Open Screen project announced earlier this year to work on Android Flash player, which indicates collaboration for providing a Flash player and AIR to Android operating system. Further, Adobe is also working to optimize the technology targeting Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips, Nvidia's Tegra and other Ion chips.

The company also added that its software engineers have increased the Flash’s operating performance by 87% and reduced memory consumption by 55 percent in Flash Player 10.1.

The new Flash Player 10.1 will also feature a new initiative, called Zeri to take benefits of media delivery with HTTP streaming that integrates content protection powered by Adobe Flash Access 2.0. The new feature will be an open format based on industry standards.
 
Flash on Phones: A Threat?

Earlier, Apple Inc, the famous iPhone maker has publicly condemned Adobe’s Flash technology, calling the technology is much slower and inefficient for mobile devices. Now, Apple's iPhone operating system is the only major platform that is not supported by Flash 10.1. However, Adobe has said that its Adobe Flash content is present on more than 85 percent of the top 100 websites and about 75 percent of all web-based videos use Flash.