Flash 10 Beta for Smartphones Expected by October

Adobe plans to ship a beta version of Flash 10 for smartphone developers by October, company executives said recently.

During the company's second-quarter earnings call on June 19, chief executive officer Shantanu Narayen said that a beta version would be released at Adobe's MAX conference this fall. At last year's MAX, Adobe showed an even earlier version of the technology running on the first Android-powered phone, the G1.

"We are bringing Flash Player 10 to smartphone class devices to enable the latest web browsing experience," Narayen said, according to a transcript of the call compiled by SeekingAlpha.com.

"Multiple partners have already received early versions of this release and we expect to release a beta version for developers at our MAX Conference in October. Google's Android, Nokia's Symbian OS, Windows Mobile, and the New Palm Web OS will be among the first devices to support web browsing with the newest Flash player."

Narayen also said that Adobe continues to "work with Apple" to develop Flash 10 for the iPhone.
"We think it's in Apple's and Adobe's best interest to make sure that Flash is a first-class citizen and we will work with Apple," he said. "In order to deliver it as a browser plug-in, we need APIs and support and cooperation from Apple and we are constantly reaching out to them."

A large chunk of the Web is already powered by Flash, although developers have written around the lack of Flash for mobile devices. A good example of this is YouTube, which Google, for example, saves as a cached video for playback. Other services like iMeem depend on Flash for their in-browser media players.