Adobe's Flash Player 10.1 sent to phone makers

22.06.2010
Adobe Systems plans to release the final version of Flash Player 10.1 for smartphones on Tuesday, but very few people will be able to use it right away.

Flash Player 10.1 is designed to offer a consistent user experience across laptops, desktops, tablets, phones and televisions. The player for desktops became available June 10.

Users of phones running Android 2.2 will be the first to get the player, said Anup Muraka, director of technology strategy at Adobe. The trouble is that version 2.2 has so far only been pushed out to review units of one phone model, the Nexus One. All Nexus One phones, Motorola's Droid and other Android models are expected to get the operating system soon.

Adobe also is releasing the final version of the player to partners including Research In Motion, Palm, Symbian and Microsoft; however, it's unclear yet which phones currently on the market might get it.

"We have to work with each platform company to figure out which phones can support it," said Muraka. If existing phones can handle it, Adobe will work with the phone makers to determine how to distribute the player to users.

"We may not see a huge number of these devices available on Tuesday, but the pipeline for Christmas, CES, Mobile World Congress next year is really exciting," he said. The Consumer Electronics Show and Mobile World Congress are two large conferences early in the year where many phone makers announce new products.