Adobe Tunes Flash For Tablets

Adobe on 15 December ported its fading mobile Flash software to Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, enabling multimedia such as video and games on Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

Flash Player 11.1 for Android smartphones and tablets is the final mobile browser Flash plug-in, and it includes enhancements and bug fixes related to stability, performance and device compatibility. The plug-in will be followed this week with an AIR 3.1.

Tablets

AIR 3.1 aims to help developers bring apps powered by Flash to Apple’s iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, BlackBerry PlayBook, Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet, and Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Both updates will be available on the Android Market.

“As we’ve mentioned before, we’re focusing on enabling amazing Flash based experiences via apps on phones and tablets, and this release will be the last major version of the mobile browser plug-in,” said Tom Nguyen, senior product manager for Flash runtime, in a blog post.

“The most stunning, innovative content and games for mobile devices are delivered and consumed through apps. The most impactful, engaging experiences on the desktop are delivered through the browser. With Flash Player for desktop and AIR apps for mobile, Flash allows you to craft and deliver beautiful experiences for both.”

The final Flash launch fulfills a promise Adobe made last month when it announced it was winding down mobile Flash support for a gradual evolution to HTML5, which is now universally supported on major mobile devices.

HTML5 is the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms, Adobe said.

HTML5

Adobe told eWEEK in November that it would release one more mobile Flash Player iteration that would support Android 4.0, as well as one last Flash Linux Porting Kit. Going forward, Adobe will provide critical bug fixes and security updates.

Google, which has been tuning its own applications for HTML5, is supportive of the move. The company has been retooling core applications, such as Google Docs, Gmail and Calendars, around HTML5 for the last two years.

Google is also experimenting with some of the prettier, eye-candy elements of HTML5 for its Chrome web browser. Indeed, Chrome Experiments is a showcase for creative web experiments, most of which are built with the HTML5 and other newer technologies.