Adobe Sees Flash on 53% of Smartphones in 2012

Adobe Systems Inc seems pretty confident that its Flash Player will gain a lot of traction on the smartphone market. According to the company, the solution is expected to be present on a number of more than 250 million smartphones by the end of 2012. Moreover, the Flash Player should be supported by more than 53 percent of the smartphones shipped during that year (total smartphone shipments are forecast to reach 300 million in 2012).

The solution delivered to smartphones follows a scaled-down version of the Flash software previously released for mobile phones. Newer devices are more powerful, and Adobe wants to take advantage of this, by offering a complete solution for them. This should broaden its adoption, even if the new Flash Player 10.1 won't make it to Apple's iPhone, as the Cupertino-based company called it unreliable and ill-suited for its iPhone and iPad.

“Maybe we don't get to the iPhone or iPad,” Anup Murarka, director of technology strategy, said in an interview with Reuters. “If anything, we're seeing continued growth in the install base and the usage of Flash and we see that continuing to grow,” he added. Adobe is confident in Flash's capabilities even if Apple doubts them.

One of the first mobile operating systems to enjoy the newest Flash Player 10.1 from Adobe is Google's Android platform. The company already announced that full support for the technology would be included in the recently unveiled Android 2.2 Froyo OS flavor. Adobe's director of technology strategy added that more smartphones should soon support Flash.

“You're going to see Flash not only on Android. Consumers will see devices from Palm, Research in Motion Ltd's Blackberry, Nokia's Symbian and Microsoft Windows Phone 7 support the full Flash Player,” Murarka said, according to Reuters. In other words, the solution should arrive on most major mobile operating systems out there, with the only one left outside being the Apple iPhone. During the ongoing year, the company expects Flash to be present on around 10 percent of the total 200 million smartphones being sold on the market.