Some good news came out of Mobile World Congress yesterday. Adobe put out a press release showing off Flash 10.1 on Android promising that general availability for BlackBerry will be in the first half of 2010. This builds on their announcement from DevCon. I really hope Flash is a gift Adobe will deliver for this summer. Just imagine what that will add for games and other small widgets. Even cooler would be if RIM would support it throughout the OS in widgets and in the browser.
Here is what RIM has to say about Adobe’s announcement:
Consumers are adopting smartphones in record numbers and we are working closely with Adobe and its engineering group to address the evolving needs of users and developers on the BlackBerry platform. Our teams are seeing great progress and we look forward to supporting Flash Player 10.1 on the BlackBerry platform in a way that delivers an incredibly rich, compelling and unique mobile experience for our customers.
— Curtis Sasaki, vice president of Platform Product Management, Research In Motion
What do you think? Will Flash on BlackBerry be huge or just another resource drain?
berryroll Not Registered
Posted: February 16, 2010 at 5:06 AM EST from my BlackBerry 8330
I couldn’t begin to count the number of times I’ve missed out on content/info because of the lack of a Flash player. Every site tells me I need it, what version required and even where to get it…except it doesn’t exist for my curve. Looking forward to the release of a Flash Player from Adobe for BB. Let’s get cracken Rim.
CadillacCowboy Not Registered
Posted: February 16, 2010 at 5:58 AM EST from my BlackBerry 9000
Meh – with the exception of Facebook applications, I rarely have a need for Flash… Add to that the upcoming “HTML 5” and the fact that Flash is a notorius resource-hogger, well there’s not much need for it.
Flash is on the way out, and what RIM need to focus on is a better browser.
CadillacCowboy Not Registered
Posted: February 16, 2010 at 6:11 AM EST from my BlackBerry 9000
I dunno about this – Flash is renowned for being resource-hungry and they say “HTML 5” is the future, so maybe this is all just one big waste of time (either that or an attempt by Adobe to convince the world it still needs Flash)…
Furthermore, I really use Flash, I would imagine that most Flash-content would be difficult to use on most mobile devices and I don’t think I’ve EVER seen a Flash-based Web site that was optimized for mobile devices, so is it really worth the effort?
It’s understandable that Adobe is going to keep pushing their product, especially when a LOT of people are predicting that it’s on its way out, but Research in Motion (RIM) need to focus their attention on a new browser and/or other products or services that are going to keep BlackBerry devices at the top of the list… After all, Adobe’s not the only one that’s trying to convince the world their still needed these days.