Adobe Flash in Windows Mobile? Yup, Adobe wants that too.
During the current Mobilize panel, we’re hearing from Gary Kovacs, the VP and General Manager of Adobe. He knows how important it is these days for Flash support in the browser and says that we will see Flash in an upcoming Windows Mobile browser for sure. Native flash support has been bounced around for years, but it sounds like it’s coming to fruition sooner rather than later.
What’s interesting to me is how such an effort will affect or impact Microsoft’s Silverlight strategy. Clearly it’s a Flash competitor on the desktop, but what about mobiles? Anyone here have a preference between the two on your handheld?
Just a heads up, Adobe already has Flash for Pocket Internet Explorer. It’s not 100% complete or compatible with the latest desktop version, but it’s been out there.
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer_pocketpc/downloads/player.html
I hope personally they leave it out. the small CPU in my smartphone can barley keep up as it is. Throw in flash on a page and it would be crawling. I have 3G but it is still slow. I can’t wait to upgrade my phone next summer for a faster CPU. I now use Samsung Blackjack.
The current iteration of Flash Mobile is limited to Flash 6, I believe, which doesn’t make it all that useful anymore. It’s also not very fast nor very stable.
pretty sad that its taken adobe this long to figure this out.
how long has flash been ‘nearly’ a web standard?
and like C.B. said, hopefully it won’t kill cpu usuage… flash ads kill my normal desktop at times..
Well hopefully MS will include Silveright in WinMob 7. Please!!! I’m using it now to create stuff for the desktop and it’s such a nice way to work… far nicer than Flash. It’s less CPU intensive for video as well… so a better candidate for animations/banners etc on power/cpu limited mobile devices.
Great discussion!
@ GoodThings2Life – While some older devices ship with Flash Lite 1.1 (Flash6) since 2004 these days OEMs have been shipping more recent versions including Flash Lite 3 (Flash 8). If you Flash slow then it sounds like you should upgrade your phone
@C.B. – The BlackJack is a great device and Flash Lite works well on it. When you upgrade you should consider whether the device is going to get software updates, is it fast enough for the future etc; just like you would a PC.
Regarding Performance:
One of the non-secrets of Flash is that it runs alot of the time in software on the CPU. If a developer produces their ad/application etc badly then you will see poor results. This is not exclusive to Flash of course.
We are listening and trying to educate developers on best practices and as always we welcome the feedback. Why not check out the Flash 10 beta on Adobe Labs, see if you notice the improvements.
Mark
Developer Relations
Adobe Mobile and Devices