A look at Adobe's Flash Player 10.1 for mobiles

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Adobe's Flash Player 10.1 for mobile devices has made its debut alongside the latest version of Google's Android operating system. Originally promised for 2009, its delayed appearance had become a factor in the increasingly heated competition between mobile platforms.

While some handsets have been able to run Flash content through Flash Lite, the new version of the rich media player brings significant improvements in performance and allows developers to build new controls into their browser-based mobile applications.

On this page, the extremely Flash-heavy Eco Zoo website is shown running smoothly and quickly. The image shows a 3D pop-up book feature, which the user can manipulate by touch.

According to Adobe's mobile platform evangelist Mark Doherty, Android 2.2 — also known as Froyo — is the earliest version of Google's mobile OS that can handle Flash Player 10.1.

Doherty attributed this limitation to the iteration of the Android browser included in the version, explaining that browsers have to support features such as 'smart zoom' — tapping the relevant Flash-enabled part of the screen to activate it — to use Flash Player 10.1. For now, Flash 10.1 requires an ARM11-based chip such as that found in the Nexus One, Doherty noted.

Once their browsers are upgraded to accommodate such functionality, operating systems including WebOS, Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry and Symbian will follow Android's lead, Doherty said.

Published: May 21, 2010 -- 16:16 GMT (09:16 PDT)
Caption by: David Meyer
Adobe has a page where it recommends suitably-optimised, Flash-enabled mobile websites.

Despite hopes that one website could be made to run equally well on any size of screen and type of device, Doherty suggested that developers would need to tailor their sites to provide "optimised experiences" across a range of devices. Mobile phones, PCs and TVs all provide different web usage experiences and therefore require optimised webpages, he noted.

Published: May 21, 2010 -- 16:16 GMT (09:16 PDT)
Caption by: David Meyer
One of Adobe's recommended mobile-optimised sites is that of Sony Pictures, which offers a range of trailers.

Published: May 21, 2010 -- 16:16 GMT (09:16 PDT)
Caption by: David Meyer
The Sony Pictures site demonstrates one of the key strengths of Flash Player 10.1 — the controls that can be embedded by the site's developers.

Published: May 21, 2010 -- 16:16 GMT (09:16 PDT)
Caption by: David Meyer
Here, Sony's developers have embedded a control within a trailer, allowing the user to share the video clip easily.

Published: May 21, 2010 -- 16:16 GMT (09:16 PDT)
Caption by: David Meyer
The BBC's iPlayer page, which is not optimised for mobile, provides a good test of Flash Player 10.1's capabilities in the setting of the generalised web.

Published: May 21, 2010 -- 16:16 GMT (09:16 PDT)
Caption by: David Meyer
This programme on the iPlayer ran decently on the Nexus One being used for Adobe's demonstration, if a little jerkily.

According to Doherty, the build of Flash Player 10.1 being demonstrated was not taking advantage of the handset's built-in hardware acceleration. He added that a new build due in mid-June would run more smoothly.

Published: May 21, 2010 -- 16:16 GMT (09:16 PDT)
Caption by: David Meyer
By way of comparison, this is a picture of the same iPlayer page running in Android 2.1's browser, without Flash Player 10.1.

Published: May 21, 2010 -- 16:16 GMT (09:16 PDT)
Caption by: David Meyer