14 DAY TRIAL // Redmond-based software giant Microsoft is set to deliver to the market a new mobile operating system before the end of the ongoing year, namely Windows Phone 7, but it seems that not all things will be set in place right at launch. One feature that would miss from the platform in the beginning would be Adobe's Flash Player technology, even if the solution has just started to roll out on other mobile operating systems on the market.
Adobe announced only several weeks ago the availability of Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR for handsets running under Google's Android operating system. The recently unveiled Android 2.2 (Froyo) OS should include native support for Flash Player 10.1 when launched on the market, while Adobe AIR, although not public at the moment, is available for preview.
The first question that comes to mind is, of course, related to the availability of Flash Player and Adobe AIR for Microsoft's new mobile platform. We know that the OS will arrive on shelves in time for the holiday season 2010 and that Flash won't be available for it at that time, but no specific information on when the technology will be made available for it were unveiled.
However, a recent post on itwriting states that Michael Chaize, a Flash Platform evangelist based in Paris, said recently that Windows Phone 7 should taste Flash Player within months after the original release. In other words, the technology would be available for Microsoft's platform in about six months following the launch, which means mid-2011.
Among the other details that were unveiled, we can count the fact that Adobe plans on making the development of mobile solutions based on Flash easier. The company plans to release a Flash Mobile Framework that would come with a nice range of optimizations for mobile phones. At the same time, the solution should widen the gap between apps developed for handsets and those built for desktop.