Adobe pushes Flash towards full mobile support

If for a second you thought Flash was ubiquitous enough already, Adobe seems to be taking the appropriate steps to make the most of its technology, not only in the desktop but in a wider range of devices. This week the company is hosting its annual Adobe MAX developer conference where it just announced an upcoming update for its Flash Player, meant to enable video and other rich web applications in mobile devices that are part of the Open Screen Project.

Just recently we had reported on rumors regarding a new Flash Player that would finally add GPU acceleration for video playback. Considering that even today's high-end desktops can come to a crawl on occasion when Flash-heavy web sites are loaded, this sounded like encouraging news. But with the official announcement upon us, now we know the focus is on getting Flash video running smoothly on mobile and otherwise underpowered devices - with one big omission.

As part of the Open Screen Project, Adobe is announcing GPU acceleration in netbooks from HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Acer, Asus and others sporting GeForce, Ion and Tegra chipsets. In the smartphone realm, the new Flash Player will make it to almost all major platforms: Windows Mobile, Palm webOS, Google Android, Symbian and even RIM's Blackberry. A notable absence is the iPhone OS. More details and additional information related to the Flash platform are available in the full press announcement.