Can't find a smartbook to buy? Blame Adobe
Vendors waiting for Flash, suggests ARM exec
Adobe's failure to release a version of Flash optimised for ARM CPUs, not the hardware itself, is what is holding back the release of netbooks based on the chip platform.
That's the clear conclusion to be drawn from comments made by ARM marketing chief Ian Drew in an interview with ZDNet UK this week.
"We thought they would be launched by now, but they're not," Drew said. "I think one reason is to do with software maturity. We've seen things like Adobe [Flash] slip — we'd originally scheduled for something like 2009."
To be fair to Adobe, developing a version of Flash for so-called 'smartbooks' isn't straightforward. The code has to be tweaked for each operating system - despite the prevalence of Android, the OS isn't yet a given - and for the underlying silicon infrastructure.
Different ARM licensees produce different and not always fully compatible ARM-based CPUs, and an app created to run on one is not necessarily certified to run on the other. That means it has to make multiple versions, and it's not going to do that off its own bat - someone has to pay for the development work.
The Android-on-ARM version of Flash is expected to appear in the second half of 2010. It was expected to appear last year. Maybe ARM needs to re-negotiate the development deal its signed with Adobe in 2008.
This lack of a consistent, single version of Flash for ARM devices is what allowed Intel to claim its Atom platform is much more suited to presenting the so-called "full web experience" - Flash support, essentially - in a mobile device. Since Atom runs Windows with the same compatibility as any other Intel CPU, Atom-based netbooks are ready to run that OS, its many browsers and the now well-established Flash plug-ins they all use.
Difficulties encountered in persuading Adobe to create a Flash implementation for the iPhone's OS and hardware combination - or maybe just the cost - is almost certainly why the Apple device has always lacked the capability, which Steve Jobs is now trying to portray as an advantage.
Indeed, the momentum gathering behind HTML 5 - even Microsoft seems keen on it - may shift the balance of power away from Adobe. That will either see Google, ARM and co. making a strategic move to HTML 5 - or Adobe will, sensing the change, decide it needs to develop a broader array of Flash implementations to prevent its technology losing its relevance. ®
COMMENTS
Delicate Code
Obviously FLASH is poorly coded, poorly designed, and delicate to be so difficult to make a reasonable port to another platform. Then again we knew that already based on its finicky behavior and crashes on regular computers.
Well...
There is Gnash. However, it's slow and buggy. Anybody who claims that they'd work on an open-source Flash player if only such a project existed do have the opportunity to make Gnash suck less.
Umm
What "failure to release a version of Flash optimised for ARM CPU" ? My N900 has a charming Cortex ARM, and it's Flash player rocks, tyvm.
Well...
First you say this would never have happened if we had the source code, then you say that someone needs to sponsor the dev process in open source.
So, er, it could have happened if we had the source code, actually, if no sponsor was available? So really we're back to business case for the dev and testing effort needed. How is that different to the decision Adobe have to make?
Did you not get the memo?
Honestly, El Reg - "to be fair to Adobe"??? No wonder Apple hates you. Fairness to Adobe has been banned for all media organisations. It is Official Apple Policy to bash Flash on all possible occasions, and anyone failing to comply will be set upon by legions of slobbering fanbois. Get with it!
