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Adobe Flash Now Arriving On BlackBerry Smartphones In Second Half Of 2010

by Bla1ze on 19 Apr 2010 08:35 AM
85
 
Adobe Flash Now Arriving On BlackBerry In Second Half Of 2010

Yes, it's true. Most of the news surrounding Adobe has been focused on their fight with Apple and the fact that Apple wants nothing to do with Flash of any kind unless of course its on their laptop and desktops. As for the iPads and iPhones of thr world, Apple is pushing all they can for HTML5 across the board. However, admist that battle is the recent developments for BlackBerry, Android and finally, webOS. All of which are embracing Flash as much as possible whether we like it or not.

In a recent interview with Fox Business news, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen laid out the plans for when we will start seeing Flash and Adobe Air applications improve across platforms. All news isn't great here though, the information stated by Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen puts the release of flash at a later time than originally forecast. What was the first half of 2010 has now become the second half of 2010. Not a huge delay, but a delay either way. The question remains the same though - do we really need Flash on our mobile devices? Or is Steve Jobs actually right in his fight to keep it off of them?

Filed Under: News & Rumors; Tags: Adobe Flash
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85 Comments

Posted by Mr. Orange 645 Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Good news on a Monday morning! It may be delayed bit atleast its still coming.

 
 
Posted by joski Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

have a boner. look at this. see my boner?!

 
 
Posted by QuiversKeep Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Now there's class for ya :)

 
 
Posted by jfs101 Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

If flash is going to be a resource hog why bother with it.

 
 
Posted by mi_canuck Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

exactly... the focus should be on html 5... flash is a burden...

 
 
Posted by kstagg Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

HTML 5 will not be a full standard for years. Flash is the defacto standard to develop multimedia delivery NOW in 2010.

Have you SEEN the apps for blackberry? Think they can compare to the apps for iPhone or Android or think they can hold the fort against what will come out when Windows 7 Phone comes out around the Holidays? Yeah - me neither.

Flash will do that for us. Flash will allow us to build those apps and build them using a stable delivery system. They are not stable on Apple machines because Apple will not work with Adobe in allowing them full access to their code to make them work more efficiently. With Microsoft's windows - that has never been a problem and thus that is why it is not a problem and won't be for Android and RIM.

I have no problem moving to HTML5 when it becomes available to everyone and becomes the standard. Hell, Adobe is part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which develops HTML standards and helps write the standards so they have a vested interest in making sure the Flash and/or their tools can keep up with the industry. They'll keep up or else be put out to pasture.

Adobe let Apple know back in October 09 that they were going to put a feature in CS5 that would allow Flash to export code to put an application to iPhones that would meet Apple standards. Then just THREE DAYS before April 12 when Adobe announces CS5, Apple announces that they wont allow that to be placed on iPhones? That was a jerk move.

Steve Jobs can preach HTML5 all he wants, he just wants to sell iPads and iPhones. Meanwhile those users will get broken flash plugins on websites while the rest of us - will not. :]

 
 
Posted by lcohen999 Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

you know...it is funny with comments like that

tests have shown that flash is less of a resource hog than HTML5 for video..

so...ya

 
 
Posted by myermian Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

I agree with Steve Jobs... Flash is not necessary for mobile phones. If mobile phone browsers support full HTML5 and full Javascript there is no need for Flash (or Silverlight).

If we start down this road then web developers are going to use flash and we're stuck with it... no thanks!

 
 
Posted by infinus Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Well,
Flash support will bring a new dimension to BB.
BB needs it now.

Steve Jobs don't want other platform to be used on iPhone
This one reason java is not supported.

Look at symbian

Platforms:-
Symbian
Java
Flash lite
Silverlite
Python
Ruby

A hugh playground for app/game developers

 
 
Posted by wcihlu Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

U can't ignore the great Steve jobs.. He's turned apple into a Multi bzillion dollar company

 
 
Posted by hudss Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Apple would of went under 10+ years ago without him..

 
 
Posted by AQucsaiJr Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

The BB browser is not real good to begin with. Now we are going to add more for the phone to have to process on top of what already takes forever to load? I think Jobs might be right on this one.

 
 
Posted by Kevin Michaluk Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

On a smartphone, I don't think it's "that" big of a deal to not have flash. Typically when I'm using the web browser on a mobile phone, my motivation is to get info asap. It doesn't matter how good the web browser is, on a smallish screen (be it BB, iPhone, etc.) you're never really going to want to sit down and kill hours of time scrolling through your big product-focused websites that tend to use flash (car sites, watch sites, etc.). So on the BlackBerry, while I'd like to have flash I'm not really feeling that much pain without it. Having it is better, but it doesn't tick me off that much not to have it.

On a device like the iPad, however, the lack of flash makes me want to throw the damn thing out the window. With the bigger screen, now it becomes much more of a sit down and and actually browse the web (vs. hunting for info) type experience. The lack of flash on a screen that size is a huge gap. Showed the iPad to my gf's parents this weekend...thinking maybe they'd like one for the house instead of getting a computer (they want to browse the web, send some emails, etc.), and of course the first two websites her dad wants to check out are flash based. #fail.

 
 
Posted by kraphts700 Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Great points. I totally agree. I don't surf the web on my BB, only looking up info. iPad definitely needs flash......

 
 
Posted by StormJH1 Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

I also agree with all those points. When I first got my 9700, I was disappointed about the web browser experience. I am still excited to see what WebKit can do. But really, when I watch somebody use the internet on their iPhone, it really doesn't look THAT much less painful than when I try to do it. You can get closer and closer to emulating a PC or Mac browsing experience, but you'll never get all the way there. In some ways, it's almost liberating being on BB's browser b/c I'm accustomed to using mobile sites that work actually faster than the full sites on a PC, if I'm realisitic about the limited tasks I'm trying to take on.

I'd prefer to see more apps that can substitute for online functions, but even the good mobile browsers really aren't THAT close to approximating the desktop or laptop browsing experience.

 
 
Posted by omz69 Tuesday, Apr 27, 2010 652 days ago

On my bold 9700 I have no problems surfing the net its really fast. I barely use my laptop now! Especially with opera mini its extremely fast all that's missing is flash so I can watch tv shows online and listen to my music on revebnation etc...If rim gets around to throwing some cool games/apps in the mix the bold 9700 will be better than the iphone 3gs! I wanna see that happen!

 
 
Posted by Gawain Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

...couple it with an improvement in the browser, as well as how the BB surfs the web in the first place. Flash isn't a deal breaker for me either, but it seems like this is one more chunk of data to get log-jammed through RIM servers. I would rather see a solution that reduces latency in the experience, not bog it down.

As for other devices, whose architecture is not the same, I'd say Flash makes more sense.

In the end, I shouldn't be surprised by any of this, with Lazaridis talking out of the side of his mouth about touch-screens and "video" not likely to be the next "killer app"...I shouldn't be surprised that RIM is not ahead of these issues. :-/

 
 
Posted by infinus Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

I really don't agree you kevin,
If RIM brings flash as a engine in OS, not only to support for web browser

Lot of apps/games/themes can be build,
Now it depends on RIM how optimized flash is for BB.

Programming flash is easy and in less time app world will can be
Filled with little fun/crazy/productive/etc apps

Providing more than one platform to smartPhone is highly beneficial

 
 
Posted by vx1 Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

well I only hope the webkit browser doesn't suck .. because if it does then flash will suck too...

It has to be fast and free flowing

flash has been known to be a memory hog
apple is not wrong about this .. I have done
flash animation and well its got some probs
hopefully adobe will fix them.

 
 
Posted by muneton17 Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

What do they consider the 2H of 2010 in their book?

 
 
Posted by Thlayli Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Sorry to be a grammar nazi, but it's Flash, not flash. It makes it harder to read the article when the brand name isn't capitalized. http://www.adobe.com/misc/trade.html#section-7

 
 
Posted by lazydogrex Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Shouldn't Nazi be capitalized? It makes it harder to read criticisms when words like Nazi aren't capitalized. Sorry I don't have a web link to reference.

 
 
Posted by bobaloo Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

You and your post bring nothing to the table.

Please gather yourself and all your grammar nazi friends and take your mental masturbation elsewhere.

 
 
Posted by hairball45 Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

I'll sure be happy to see it. The illustrious Mr Jobs can have his exclusive little fiefdom and keep out what people want. Yep, I want a better, faster browser too, but I run into a lot of dead sites without flash. And maybe, just maybe, this will lead to epub and PDF being available on BB too. I really miss the ability to read adobe books on the Palms I used to have. Even they don't get support any longer.

 
 
Posted by DeliriousGA Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

It's about time. Whether you like it or not, Flash is used on a huge number of sites. It's about time we will be able to view all websites on our BBs.

As for Steve Jobs, I really hope he doesn't set standards for anything. Apple is such so ridiculous with making everything proprietary so you must use Apple or nothing it's insane.

 
 
Posted by Shadowlore Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

The only problem I have with Steve Jobs' way of thinking.. is just that. It's *HIS* way of thinking. How about Mr Jobs give the consumer the choice. While I admit, I probably won't make massive use of flash on my blackberry, I'd at least like the option to use it. There are some sites that are designed around people being able to view them with flash... and to just outright say: 'Either your site is HTML5, or I'm not letting people view it', is just asinine.

Consumer choice is what some companies are just now starting to get.. once it becomes the 'norm'.. lotta companies are going to find out it's easier to support the customer.

 
 
Posted by 3G.BoldBerry Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Customers have no choice, when u have someone making ur dissions for u on everything u got a problem. Jobs is the ceo of apple not the world his aim is for every living person to buy a apple product. Its always about the money not the needs. And because thE iphone is a hot seller makes him the man of choice? Then you guys don't need to be commenting just go with jobs, it would be a lot easier than to waste all your time on something that will be a future disaster. Flash has its place and as phones become faster the support for it has to work for mobility fast and reliable, do you really think this is going to be a problem then why in the first place users would ask for it? Why would the mobile phone not support it? Its a mini computer and it does almost everything you would do on ur computers to keep your clients informed to getting your work done. I don't think its a bad idea given the option to turn it off for people who use slower connection speeds and have it stream over a actually load onto the device. Weather it works right or not is up to us not steve jobs. And sometimes you loose, apple just never really had a bad day, but they are not the only company that can make good decisions on what works and what don't. Apple should be the last to say anything about this, they already control there products with there gimmick app store whit what they have to approve before it gets the ok. Now tell me this is what people like being done to them? Then the freedom of expression is being stripped away right in front of our eyes. After all people its our money that makes the difference, we will never know how well this can be if we don't give it a shot, we could be missing out on a more flexible medium as well. I'm not a fan of flash but so far I find the bb browser to be very fast and it gets what I need done and for the most sites you can see it. Fast yes as our phones will also have to be improved as well, we make the difference not apple.

 
 
Posted by infinus Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Risk is what makes difference...
RIM has lot of money to cover their mistakes...

I will support RIM to go for Flash

 
 
Posted by serversurfer Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Neither Bill nor Steve are motivated by charity or brotherly love. they are interested in power and expand there sphere of influence. The most technical innovation attends capitalizm! I dont care, i have no choise between the techno-war-monger and dictators At least i want a BlackBerry which can browse so many different websides as possible! My RAM and Memory allows to download flash, Html5 or what ever! Im only interested in a BlackBerry with capability as possible! Shit on ideological fights...;-)

 
 
Posted by oldwolf Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Back when I had my Curve (on a Tour now) it was a pain not having something to play the stuff I wanted - now w/the new phone and all the other stuff that either worked around or the change in content from other places on the web I wonder if we do really need flash. Guess we will find out.

 
 
Posted by oldwolf Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

And far as Jobs goes - he is a power nazi wanting to keep the market very tight and competitionless.

 
 
Posted by redwanhuq Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

As long as the browsing experience or battery life doesn't deteriorate, I'm all for Flash on mobile devices.

Steve Jobs and Apple are hellbent on dumbing down technology to a level where it's so oversimplified that my grandmother would be able to use it. His elitist point-of-view of the tech world has only one purpose: brainwash and market these crappy, barely-functional products to people who wouldn't know any better, under the guise that they "just work" and are "pretty". Don't insult my intelligence, Steve.

He's making the same mistakes as Microsoft did in the 90s. What Bill did with Java, he's doing with Flash. Only this time, there's the open-source world (Google) to the rescue. I'm sick of these conglomerates trying to monopolize everything.

 
 
Posted by stubbornswiss Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

".......brainwash and market these crappy, barely-functional products ......"?

Sir, it sounds to me like you've never used an Apple product.

And why wouldn't you want your grandmother to be able to use today's technology?

Hmmmm.......you do sound strange!

 
 
Posted by Bob G Tuesday, Apr 20, 2010 659 days ago

I experiment with my wife's iPhone 3GS all the time. It's a fun toy, but it doesn't measure up to a BlackBerry. Apple has a lot of catching up to do. For example:
- Multitasking
- Bluetooth Sync
- File Explorer
- Mass storage mode
- Profiles
- Themes
- Custom ring tones
- Home screen folders
- 'Today' home screen
- Hidden home screen icons
- Categories
- Notifier API
- User-defined text shortcuts
- Automatic on/off
- Meeting Notice
- Week view in Calendar
- Combined inbox
- Instant Messenger
- Adobe Flash
- Holster sensing
- Tasks
- Camera Flash
- SD card
- Spare battery or long battery life
- Notifier LED
- Good reception and call quality

 
 
Posted by Crackberrier09 Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Jobs is right. Adobe is lazy.
How long does it take to open a damn .PDF file? How long does it take to load a damn web page loaded with Flash.

 
 
Posted by webmastir Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

still going android. sorry ;)

 
 
Posted by mi_canuck Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

you'll be back... i went android (nexus one) and the novelty wore off... back to the 9700 and super happy... hope you like poor battery life and poor RF because that's what awaits you on android... ;)

 
 
Posted by Marine One Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

I went Nexus One and never looked back at BB

 
 
Posted by Marine One Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

I went Nexus One and never looked back at BB. Battery life is good and not having to pull the battery every two hours is life changing. I also enjoy NEVER seeing an hourglass :)

 
 
Posted by waker Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Jobs is wrong. If this and webkit are not on my storm 2 bye bye bblackberry.

 
 
Posted by jbdale Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Seriously? This is the deal breaker for you? What did you buy a BB for?

 
 
Posted by StormJH1 Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

I'm not a fan of people cherrypicking individual features and calling them "dealbreakers" when they don't happen. If anyone bought a Storm thinking they were getting a top-level touchscreen webbrowser on par with the other options on the market, they were either misinformed or never visited this website. I'm not saying the Storm is a bad device, I'm just throwing it out there that a Storm is going to be limited by the same operating system limitations that affect all Blackberrys.

There is no way to evaluate whether or not Flash will work well b/c none of us have WebKit browser yet. As it stands now, surfing a non-mobile website on BB Browser is basically pointless...it hasn't evolved in any significant way than the "web surfing" I did on my Palm Wi-Fi handheld PDA back in 2005. Heck, I think part of the biggest APPEAL of BB is the continuity it has with PDA's and older devices that professionals have been using for many years. If WebKit sucks, then Flash won't matter, b/c you still won't be doing full webpage surfing on your BB. Plus, WebKit may only be available for the 9700 and a few other devices in the beginning.

 
 
Posted by waker Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

I generally like RIM and have put forth great effort to learn all I can about the Blackberry platform.

I am tired of buying devices (granted just two) in anticipation of "webkit in 2q 10" only to hear, oh yeah, looking like 9700 only. It makes sense too, the 9700 is the only device that is currently shipping with flash installed on device (look it up).

I was a storm 1 user, made it work, actually really like the thing. I still use it for a battery charger.

The storm 2 has been my baby, I love the thing and yes the sexy bb hardware would be hard to give up. Even the htc devices feel cheap compared to the berries. They look and feel sexy.

I have become quite the hobbyist on these forums over the past two years. There aren't many problems I can't solve and have even come up with solutions not though of before in some instances.

Webkit is not a small feature btw; flash is I grant you that. Webkit, not so much.

This would probably be a "deal breaker" (quoted to make it sound silly ...) for me continuing with RIM devices in the future unless I suffer until my new every 2 is up and they have a new touch screen, webkit, flash based blackberry witha toothbrush to waste yet another 200 dollars on. I want to get two years out of a phone for once.. They call it "new every two" for a reason.

Why did you choose bb? Wait, don't answer that. I imagine a lot of people feel as I do. The biggest reason I am still here is brand loyalty.

Anyways, if my broswing experience doesnt improve significantly I am out.

And your point is FANTASTIC btw. Why would I buy a device, over and over and over again that doesn't have the features I want. That's my simple non combative answer. I just won't. Peace.

(I hope they get things fixed up though.)

 
 
Posted by jbdale Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

You mean you won't up until now or just in general? That really doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

I just love comments from S2 users that want to jump to a media device. It's obvious why, and it's pathetic.

 
 
Posted by waker Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Right. I won't going forward. my point of view is valid. What device are you using? I'd take the s2 over any device you could possibly have. Only the 9700 compares.

Web broswing is extremely important to me. I have a different opinion from the one Kevin has above. It isn't better or more correct. It is different. Do you lack the ability to disagree? So you only ever consider 1 poi t of view?

 
 
Posted by jbdale Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

I have a S2 and an a 3gs. I have Opera on the S2 so it pretty much levels the playing field IMO. Granted the 3gs renders a little smoother, but it's not enough to say that it is better. No actually you said that you would leave BB id it didn't improve, which I think is not strong point of view since there are other options for a browser. But you are entitled to your opinion, as am I.

If you are waiting for some giant improvement, pack a lunch cuz it will be a while.

 
 
Posted by j0shuWa2491 Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Well I'm in love with my Storm2. Wouldn't trade it for anything but a Storm3.

 
 
Posted by devGOD Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Lately any news surrounding the BB new device, upgrade, or apps have all been BLAH!... the BB OS is so dated and they're going to squeeze flash into it. How about update the damn OS to something better and stop making 101 version of the same damn phone design.

 
 
Posted by anderl72 Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

this is good news !!!

 
 
Posted by Bold_until_Hybrid_Comes Monday, Apr 19, 2010 660 days ago

Apple can never just be normal. They always have to support whatever it is that is not the most popular, and not the best. Everything is always backwards with apple, always has been always will be. Just like the people that own their devices usually vegetarians, anti-fur activists, etc. HTML5 is not going to survive against Flash.

Flash will be a nice addition to our blackberrys. Do we really need it? Yeah. I would say we do. Our mobile devices are becoming more and more our primary browsing device. They should be able to do almost anything a PC can except on a smaller screen.

 
 
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