Android 2.2 Will Invite Users to Visit Flash-Capable Websites

Posted 05/18/2010 at 5:03am | by Paul Lilly

5

Comments

Print

Apple would have you believe that Adobe's Flash platform just isn't an exciting development for mobile devices. In an open letter to anyone who would listen, Steve Jobs criticized the platform up and down in defense of shunning Flash from the iPhone/iPod/iPad experience. So what's Google's approach? The exact opposite.

It's expected that Google will go public with Android 2.2 during the opening keynote for the Google I/O conference tomorrow, and when it does, Flash integration will be one of the main points of interest. According to TechCrunch, Android users with smartphones eligible for the 2.2 update, such as the Nexus One, Droid, and soon enough the HTC Evo will see a link to an Adobe Mobile website immediately after the upgrade. The site will give users the option to "View Flash enabled websites" or "Get Adobe products," and if you select the former, you'll see a list of portals that work with Flash 10.1.

The site is already live, which you can view here and then compare to Apple's list of iPad-ready sites, which are ones that either don't use Flash or have incorporated HTML5 audio and video in addition to Flash.

With iPhone 4 OS just around the corner and Google backing Flash in a big way, it will be interesting to see how everything shakes out on the mobile battlefield.