Adobe to stop Flash development for WM 6.5?

By George Ponder
last updated

Adobe may have let it slip on its forums (opens in new tab) that it will no longer pursue development of Flash 10.1 for Windows Mobile 6.5. The question was asked about the availability of Adobe Flash 10.1 and a forum member, that some are identifying as a Adobe representative replied, "As for WinMo, we have made the tough decision to defer support for that platform until WinMo7. This is due to the fact that WinMo6.5 does not support some of the critical APIs that we need."  The same representative also mentions that the HD2 will be first Windows Phone to support Flash.

If Adobe doesn't plan on continuing development towards WM 6.5, instead will focus on WP7S and the first Windows Phone to run Flash will be the HTC HD2 ... could this add more credence to the thought that the HD2 might be upgradeable to Windows Phone 7 Series? Or are we stretching things a wee bit too much?

Read: Electronista.com

George Ponder
George Ponder

George is the Reviews Editor at Windows Central, concentrating on Windows 10 PC and Mobile apps. He's been a supporter of the platform since the days of Windows CE and uses his current Windows 10 Mobile phone daily to keep up with life and enjoy a game during down time.

14 Comments
  • THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR FLASH TO COME OUT ON OUR BELOVED TOUCH PRO 2 FOR A YEAR. BEING TEASED WITH VIDEOS AND NOW THEY GIVE UP! WHAT IF EVERYONE GAVE UP! ADOBE SHOULD RECEIVE SOME INQUIRES FROM MICROSOFT SOON BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO STOP BUYING APPS FROM THE MARKET PLACE UNTIL THEY CAN GET A WM7 PHONE, IF THEY EVEN DECIDE TO STAY WITH WINDOWS. AS SOON AS ANDROID COMES OUT WITH SLING PLAYER, IM JUMPING SHIP AND LEAVING ALTOGETHER AND I SUSPECT ALOT OF US WILL TOO. WM6.5 IS HERE TO STAY FOR THE LONG RUN! WE DON'T LIKE WP7 & IT'S RESTRICTIONS! SO ADOBE PROVE TO US THAT YOUR NOT LAZY LIKE STEVE JOBS SAYS AND RELEASE IT, HELL RELEASE THE BETA LIKE ADOBE PROMISED FOR AT LEAST THE TOUCH PRO2 AND DIAMOND2 AND LET XDA OR PPCGEEKS DO YOUR HOMEWORK FOR YOU!
  • @uranidiot what are stupid. all windows mobile have flash build in already. i been using flash with my win mobile 6.5 alfready. also windows phone 7 is way better. yes i want windows phone 7 have flash and will wait. WM 6.5 will be outdated anyway so who cares of adding it anyway. just make sure Windows phone 7 has it instead which i know it will. also forgot bmention i have Touch Pro 2 and already has flash since phone arrived last year. so yes windows phone 7 will be best
  • we are talking about adobe Flash 10.1 not flash mobile 9.X.XX.X. or flash lite. Flash 10.1 enables us to watch flash video and content from sites like OVguide or flash games. if u knew anything about wm phones or read or listen to podcasts you would know the ridiculous restriction wp7 imposes on the user. so if you know how i can watch megavideo on the tp2 without using skyfire browser, let us know.
  • Honestly, I can't say I'm overly worked up about this development. I have an older version of Flash on my TP2 and I tend to avoid using it as it can be a bit laggy. The fact that WM6.x devices don't have a 'mouse hover' action tends to break a lot of flash content anyway. Flash 10.1 is, for me, filed under 'nice to have' but not a deal breaker for continuing to use my TP2... nor is it a feature that would block me from going to WP7. I just don't put that much importance on mobile flash. Yes some sites require it ... but a whole boat load of sites also realize that major players, like the iPhone don't support flash - so workarounds are put in place for those sites. The rest? As posted above I just open those sites in SkyFire. My thoughts on this is that Adobe probably realized that Flash will run much better on a 1GHz based WP7 chassis device than it will on the 528Mhz (or less!!) standard that is common for WM6.x devices. Rather than try to move mountains, they can save themselves some effort by targetting the more powerful upcoming devices that their target market are going to purchase anyway. Yup, you can run to Android (or something else) but you'll still be playing right into Adobe's hands --- they are expecting their customer base are going to upgrade anyway.
  • Sorry to say this to any flash fans around here, but I'd rather flash slowly die off. HTML5 helps from the video standbpoint but flash is still used for games and stuff. Regardless, I hate it, alot.
  • What BS. If you don't care about flash video on your TP2 then you don't really care about video on your phone.
    All decent video content out there is currently Flash video -- like it or not.
    Not enough horsepower to run flash??? Gotta be kidding me. Why do Youtube videos run just fine in Silverlight? This is some stupid marketing thing not a technical issue. Heck the flash beta was shown running on WinMo 6.5. I've now had to wait over 3 months just for Sprint to finally get off their butt and roll out 6.5 for my TP2. Who knows if they'll finally fullfil their promise. Also still basically zero apps are avaible to use the motion sensing. Now I find out the promised Flash plug-in isn't going to happen. What a joke. I'm selling my TP2 on Ebay. I previously soured on WinMo with my Mogul and upgraded to a Pre. Too bad the Pre was so flimsy it broke twice and I had to replace it with the TP2. Decided to give WinMo one more chance.
    TP2 is a GREAT phone due to HTC hardware design and SPB mobile shell. But things like this are deal breakers.
    I want to watch Hulu, flixxy, etc on my phone -- end of story. Skyfire was blocked by Hulu and Skyfire is pretty cruddy anyway -- so I have zero options now.
    WinMo just lost a user forever with this and I've been using Windows CE based devices since my Cassiopeia. I'm going to see where Android takes me.
  • Hulu? Flixxy? Kinda geo-filtered where I live so not even remotely a variable for my smartphone use. I've been using Windows Mobile since the Cassiopeia E-10. I've dabbled with Flash... occasionally tried to view homestarrunner.com on the phone. Meh. Youtube is covered nicely by HTC Streaming app. And since when is Silverlight available for Windows Mobile 6.5? Flash most likely works great on a TP2 running 6.5 -- but remember people like you are going to grill Adobe when Flash 10.1 doesn't run as well on a Dell Axim 324 MHz that's running WM6.5 produced by someone at XDA. Adobe can spent a ton of money on that trying to make the square peg fit in the round hole or they can just say heck with it, 1Ghz minimum processor and they'll only need half the programmers and testing. Sure, if you know someone on the Flash devel team I'll bet you can get a 80% bug free build of Flash. I toyed around with a Motorola Milestone today at a store here in Canada. Have fun with Android. If you've been using Windows Mobile since the Cassiopeia days your Android phone will be embedded in (thrown at) a wall within a few days.
  • Not sure what the Youtube app uses - I assume it was Silverlight in the background since I heard Youtube was experimenting with it somewhere. Maybe it's html 5. Regardless -- it's BS that you can't run video on the TP2 class devices.
    I'm not asking for my old Mogul to play it. Just the smartphone that was released 5 months ago on Sprint. If flash is really THAT slow; so much that it won't run a low-def video on current generation smartphones then that really IS sad. I'd have to side with Steve Jobs. But I still don't belive it. I think Adobe is lazy and MS doesn't care about it's WinMo 6.5 customers now that it's looking to 7.
  • Adobe themselves came out and said it's the processing power that's the limiter here - they want a minimum ARM8 and most Android handsets won't run Flash 10.1 either (so make sure you get a bloody expensive Android phone) http://pocketnow.com/tech-news/flash-101-limited-by-hardware-requirement Video works great on my TP2 - I use it all the time for watching movies in MP4 format, and I sync my MythTV recordings to my TP2 over RSS. Don't assume my lack of desire for Adobe Flash content on my device translates to a lack of desire to use it for video. I tried Flash sites and decided the experience wasn't worth my time. Sites like Hulu are blocked in Canada, so it doesn't matter what phone I buy, unless it comes with a USA proxy that isn't blocked. If I *really* care about using flash mobile, I would just get a netbook and tether it to my TP2. I'll eventually upgrade to WP7S and sure enough I'll be watching people complain about how Flash 11 isn't available and dammit they're switching to iPhone or whatever. We have had official Flash support for *years* on our devices, just not the latest and greatest. I've also seen lots of interactive web technologies that never made it to *any* phone. Anyone remember Microsoft Liquid Motion? Silverlight? It wasn't that long ago that all the cellular providers (in Canada anyway) were simply BLOCKING Flash based content and all streaming content from even getting onto the network. We've come a long way, and we will continue to grow what we can do on our devices.
  • as long as the HD2 gets it I am fine. i will probably get that phone
  • It's funny because Flash 10 seems to run quite well on the HD2 in this video: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/industry-trends/htc-hd2-and-nexus-one i'm not exactly sold on the usability of Flash on most WM devices out today. Flash is a hog on the desktop, what makes people think it wouldn't be the same on a phone, especially in an OS which allows multitasking as WM 6.5.3 does? That's not to say that i wouldn't gladly install it if someone leaked it. :)
  • i cant believe android get flash and not the huge install base wm6.X has. my only saving grace may be the dual boot app that Ive seen floating around xda and ppcgeeks. having wm & android on my sprint tp2 would be a godsend. but since i have a cdma tp2 I'm going to have to wait some more before someone releases it. and yea skyfire is sluggish AND STILL NEEDS A STOP BUTTON!
  • its called show me the money, htc new windows phone with windows 7 says it all, so you realy think there just going to give every one with a windows mobile phone the flashplayer 10 just like that!? no way jose its called big bag off money frist buy that new shiney windows phone then you well have flashplayer 10, but then give it time someone well hack it to a cab sonner then you think lol,
  • If you want flash on winmo use open plug and it runs native.
    Or Haxe to c++ and compile it afterwards. Adobe is doing the hardware producer lap dog but they are going to regret it for shure. Has for people mentiong html5...wake up...that is a framework...flash is a runtime with scripting in it, it isn't just used for nag adds and video.
    Sheeple....geesh.