Adobe Flash For Samsung's Google Tab Is An Embarrassing Disaster
Adobe's Flash plugin for Google Android is supposed to give Android-based tablets, like Samsung's new Galaxy Tab, a leg up on Apple's iPad, which does not support Flash. — The argument is that Flash support gives people fuller access …
Context & Ripple Effects
When Samsung's Galaxy Tab launched in September running Froyo, Flash support was one of its clearest selling points against Apple's iPad — a checkbox Android tablets could point to while Apple refused to ship the plugin. The pitch was simple: Android gives you the 'full web,' iPad gives you a curated subset of it.
That pitch is now taking fire from inside the Android camp itself. SAI's verdict that the Flash plugin on the Galaxy Tab is an embarrassing disaster — echoed by TechCrunch's syndicated pickup, which ran the sardonic quote 'Flash Is Great' attributed to an anonymous Flash developer — means the feature Samsung was counting on for differentiation is, in practice, undermining the product's credibility at launch.
First-order effects
- Samsung loses its headline differentiator for the Galaxy Tab heading into the holiday season: the Flash-enabled 'full web' argument against the iPad now demonstrably backfires in reviews of its own device.
- Adobe's mobile Flash effort takes a direct reputational hit — the company staked its relevance on smartphones and tablets after Apple excluded Flash from iOS, and its first flagship tablet showing is being panned.
Second-order effects
- Other Android tablet makers planning to lead with Flash in their marketing face a forced choice between keeping the claim and shipping hardware that embarrasses them the same way.
- Apple gains an unearned argument: it never had to prove Flash on a tablet, because competitors' own launches are making the case against it — sharpening the iPad's 'it just works' positioning without Apple spending anything.
Third-order effects
- If Flash keeps underperforming on mobile silicon, the industry's tablet contest shifts from feature checklists (Flash yes/no) to end-to-end experience quality — a structural advantage for vertically integrated players like Apple and a problem for component-assembled Android tablets.
- Adobe faces a strategic squeeze: its desktop franchise depends on Flash staying ubiquitous, yet every failed mobile deployment erodes the case for Flash as the web's runtime, pushing developers toward HTML5 regardless of which vendor wins the tablet war.
The trend: Tablet competition in late 2010 is pivoting from spec-sheet checkboxes like Flash support toward real-world experience quality, where Apple's closed model currently holds the proof points.