Adobe has today unveiled its Flash Player 10.1 software for smartphones, smartbooks, netbooks, PCs and other Internet-connected devices.
The release, announced at Adobe's MAX conference in Los Angeles, signals the arrival of Flash Player on many of today's smartphones and handheld devices. Until now, smartphone users have had to rely on Flash Lite, a highly optimised implementation of the Flash runtime designed for less powerful devices.
Flash Player 10.1 has been created for use on a wide variety of devices, with Adobe stating that almost 50 participants of its Open Screen Project have vowed to support its latest Flash runtime. The Open Screen Project, initiated by Adobe in May 2008, consists of a number of industry leaders working together "to provide a consistent runtime environment for open web browsing and standalone applications".
Current Open Screen Project partners include the likes of ARM, HTC, Intel, Motorola, Nokia, NVIDIA, Palm, Qualcomm, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, with Adobe today announcing another major new addition in the form of Android-manufacturer, Google.
Adobe expects a public beta of Flash Player 10.1 to be made available for Windows Mobile, Palm webOS and desktop operating systems including Windows, Macintosh and Linux later this year. Public betas for Google Android and Symbian OS are expected to follow early in 2010. Although a time frame hasn't been announced, BlackBerry owners are advised that Adobe and RIM are working to bring the software to BlackBerry smartphones. Apple's iPhone, meanwhile, remains absent from Adobe's immediate plans.
In addition to support for a wide variety of devices, Flash Player 10.1 will also introduce mobile-friendly features including support for multi-touch, gestures, mobile input models, accelerometers, and the promise of better-conserved battery life.
In related news, Adobe and NVIDIA today confirmed last week's rumours by announcing support for GPU acceleration in Flash Player 10.1. Hardware acceleration for Flash content will be available on a number of NVIDIA GPUs - including members of the GeForce, ION and Tegra product lines.
