Flash Player Lands on Android in June, Adobe Says

Android phone users are getting closer and closer to seeing Adobe's Flash Player 10.1 available for their devices. After a long wait, a more specific time frame for the release of the technology has been unveiled. Flash Player 10.1 for Android should arrive in June, after being previewed a month earlier, at Google I/O in May.

Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch stated the following in a recent blog post: “We look forward to delivering Flash Player 10.1 for Android smartphones as a public preview at Google I/O in May, and then a general release in June. From that point on, an ever increasing number and variety of powerful, Flash-enabled devices will be arriving which we hope will provide a great landscape of choice.”

At the same time, he stated that Flash Player and AIR wouldn't come to Google's Android mobile operating system alone, but that other major smartphone platforms would also receive them, including “RIM, Palm (soon to be HP), Microsoft, Nokia and others.” No specific time frame was unveiled for when other platforms than Android receive the technology, but one can hope that Adobe won't make users wait too long.

Google's Android OS will soon be upgraded to a new version, and, with the company announcing not too long ago plans to include native support for Flash Player in the next release of the platform, users should soon have yet another reason to rejoice. As soon as Android 2.2 (Froyo) is here, the experience Flash Player can deliver on handsets will be enhanced.

Although about the entire mobile ecosystem will have access to the Flash technology from Adobe, users of an iPhone or iPad from Apple won't be able to enjoy it. It's a well-known fact that Apple does not like Flash, and Adobe decided to step back in this area: “given the legal terms Apple has imposed on developers, we have already decided to shift our focus away from Apple devices for both Flash Player and AIR.”