Flash Arriving By Year-End On Every Smartphone Except iPhones

Adobe has promised betas of a mobile-ready Flash 10.1 for Windows Mobile and Palm Pre late this year, and early next year for Android, Symbian and BlackBerry phones, as well as NVIDIA-powered netbooks. The only hold-out? The iPhone, of course.

Adobe describes Apple as a “closed device” and continues to offer a fig leaf, but given Apple’s general stance on opening up new development platforms on their device, it seems a tad unlikely. As Gizmodo points out though, that might become a selling feature for those annoyed by memory-hungry Flash apps and advertisements.

More notable than even the ability to watch YouTube clips on your phone though, is that Flash 10.1 will support graphic chip acceleration on systems with NVIDIA graphics cards, allowing full-screen viewing on netbooks whose processors might otherwise choke, and giving laptop and desktop users perhaps a bit more performance from low-quality clips. Adobe AIR, the cross-platform app engine that powers apps like TweetDeck, will also see improvements with the release of Flash 10.1.

Promises of multi-platform support “by the end of this year” might not be bankable, but it’s reassuring to hear Adobe’s firm expectations on all but one platform. Tell us what you’d like Flash to do, or stay away from, on your own smartphone or netbook in the comments.

Flash 10.1: Full Flash for Everyone But iPhone, Actually Playable HD Vids [Gizmodo]