Adobe Flash gets its full launch on Android

Aftermonths of back-and-forth debate about whether Adobe’s Flash technologyis a good fit for smartphones, Adobe is launching a full version ofFlash for mobile devices, starting with Google’s Android operatingsystem.

Adobe released a test version of Flashto the public about a month ago, but this is the real launch of thefinished product. Flash 10.1 should now be available for download onphones using the latest version of Android, 2.2, which is known as FroYo.And the company says it has shipped Flash to its other device partners,so that Flash should soon be available on BlackBerry, Palm webOS,Windows Phone 7, LiMo, MeeGo, and Symbian phones — basically, all themajor smartphones except for Apple’s.

The desktop version of Flash 10.1 should also be available today.

Developers and designers use Flash to build a wide range of onlinecontent, but its biggest presence is in powering Web games and videos. Flash came under attack recently from Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, who blocked Flash from iPhones and iPads, calling it an outdated technology. Adobe has fired back,saying Flash works just fine on the iPhone and that Apple is playing“legal games,” but until Flash 10.1 it was really a battle of words,not products — the full version of Flash (as opposed to a stripped downversion, called Flash Lite, that Adobe hardly mentions anymore) didn’tactually work on mobile phones.

I was given a review copy of a Nexus One to test out Flash, but Icouldn’t get it to work properly before last month’s test release. Itturned out I was given a review phone without Flash, so once everythingwas set up properly, things seemed to work smoothly. Themobile-optimized gaming and video sites that Adobe highlighted provideda better experience than random Flash websites, but even on sites thatweren’t designed for smartphones, it was nice to no longer get errormessages because Flash wasn’t supported. That seems to be theimpression of analysts who tested Flash as well. (I didn’t keep the phone long enough to assess the effect on battery life.)

In its announcement, Adobe included a bunch of positive quotes fromanalysts, content partners, and device partners, but perhaps it’s bestto end on a comment from Google — a company that is moving its videosupersite YouTube from Flash to HTML5, and which has been more vocal inevangelizing for HTML5, but which has also sniped at Apple for its lack of Flash support. Here’s the statement from Andy Rubin, one of the inventors of Android and now vice president of engineering at Google:

We are excited that Android is the first mobile platformto support the full Flash Player. Now mobile users can browse the fullweb on their smartphones, and Android developers can useindustry-leading tools to create immersive experiences on the web.

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