Android getting Flash Player 10.1 in June

Shortly after Apple CEO Steve Jobs published his thoughts on Flash, stating that Adobe's platform has too many disadvantages to become part of Apple's advanced iPhone OS, Adobe has come up with a statement of its own. Even though the software developer admits that some collaboration with the computer giant would only benefit the customers and technology as a whole, it sees no reason to continue to insist on Apple adopting Flash. Apple's statement has been clear enough, so Adobe is now shifting its focus to the other mobile platforms, such as Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry, Symbian, webOS and Android.

Sure, some high-end Android smartphones are already capable of showing some limited content through Flash Lite, but everyone knows that the real deal is expected to happen once Adobe's Flash Player 10.1 launches. Fortunately, the developer has announced that it will deliver a public preview of the software at Google I/O, which starts on May 19, and will finally release the product in June. While this sounds like an earlier than expected rollout of full Flash support for Android, keep in mind that it's still not clear which devices will be getting an update and when. As Google's Andy Rubin said, full Flash support will come with Android 2.2 Froyo. Let's hope that as many phones as possible will get a free update to that one, and users won't need to purchase a brand new handset only a few months after they got themselves a Nexus One or a Droid Incredible.

sources: Adobe, Apple