Hachamovitch drew some of the same conclusions, but as is Microsoft's practice, didn't name either its tablet-making rival's name or the tablet itself.

"Metro style IE10 with Flash on Windows 8 enables people to see more of the Web working with high quality, especially compared with the experience in other touch-first or tablet experiences," Hachamovitch said, clearly referring to the iPad.

Metro IE10 on Windows 8 Release Preview has Flash Player baked in, as a check with Adobe verifies.

But the integration of Flash with IE10 won't give an edge over only Apple. Rival browsers may also be out in the cold.

Adobe has not said whether it will work with other browser makers -- Google and Mozilla in particular -- in the same fashion to integrate Flash Player with their applications on Metro. Google may have a leg up: It's for two years.