Adobe: Flash Coming To Android Tablets “Within A Few Weeks”
Earlier today there was quite a bit of commotion in the tech press over a Verizon ad that stated that Flash wouldn't be making its way to Android tablets until Spring 2011. Which has the potential to be pretty far off …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is a credibility fight over a launch window, not a product announcement. Adobe's chief executive promised Flash on Android 'smartphones and tablets' back in April 2010 with a 2H 2010 target, and the actual track record since has been rough — Silicon Alley Insider called Flash on Samsung's Galaxy Tab an embarrassing disaster in November 2010. Days before Mobile World Congress, Adobe laid out its Android plans again, and now a Verizon Xoom listing has surfaced saying Flash won't hit Android tablets until Spring.
Adobe's response is a direct contradiction of that Xoom listing: tablets get Flash 'within a few weeks,' not spring. That the story was picked up same-day by Engadget and Technologizer — the latter under the headline 'Mobile Flash: Always Exciting, Always Not Quite Here Yet' — shows how much skepticism has accumulated around Adobe's timelines heading into the Xoom's February 24th launch.
First-order effects
- The Motorola Xoom ships February 24th without its most-marketed differentiator versus the iPad — Flash support — so early Xoom buyers get a tablet whose headline web feature arrives only via a later update.
- Adobe's 'few weeks' statement puts it publicly at odds with partner Verizon's own product listing, forcing one of them to walk back a timeline within days of launch.
Second-order effects
- Motorola and Verizon are left marketing around the gap — either leaning on the promised update or de-emphasizing Flash — which weakens the 'full web' pitch that has been Android's main counter to Apple's no-Flash iPad position.
- Every slipped deadline hands competitors like Apple an argument that Flash on mobile is structurally unfit rather than merely late, pressuring other Android OEMs betting shelf space on the feature.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — a 2H 2010 pledge becoming a spring-2011 reality — Adobe risks the mobile market pricing in perpetual delay, accelerating the industry's drift toward video and app strategies that assume Flash never arrives.
- Carrier and OEM launch pages becoming the battleground for software roadmaps signals how much tablet purchase decisions now hinge on post-launch update credibility, not just hardware specs.
The trend: Mobile Flash is sliding from flagship Android differentiator to chronic vaporware, and each slipped deadline shifts tablet competition further toward ecosystems and apps where Adobe has no seat.