[deesugar]

Getting sick of all the talk about Flash I emailed Mark Doherty who is the Platform Evangelist - Mobile and Devices WW at Adobe Systems. Below is my email to him and his response:


My Email:

Mark,
All of us in the WebOS world have seen the many demo videos of Flash on the Pre (like on your blog) but we were told that the plugin was supposed to be available in December of 2009. There's not even the beta that was promised to us available. With the launch of the iPad and more sites using HTML 5 I would have to believe that this project is dead.

There's also this article in the Examiner:

"Things just suck for Adobe these days. Not only will Apple's refusal of Flash technology hurt their business, but they can't seem to get a proper plugin for the Palm Pre and webOS, which has been promised for months now. We are told that the plugin that was supposed to be available in December, then January, then February, then March and then April won't be available in the near future.

Adobe can make up any excuses they want. The fact is that Flash technology is way too buggy for mobile devices. The few developers who had access to Flash on the Pre have said that it not only eats away battery life very fast, but often causes the Pre to do a complete reset.

Los Angeles industry analyst Paul Mueller thinks that Adobe Flash will be just like Mariah Carey in another year: irrelevant and replaced. Other technologies such as HTML 5 are replacing Flash on different websites. You have to give Adobe credit though: Flash was fun while it lasted."

So can someone at Adobe just be honest and tell us the truth?

Thanks,
Dave

Mark's Response:

Hi Dave,

Darly’s article is somewhat misleading – Palm are required to pass our certification tests and we are actively encouraging them to meet that strict criteria. The integration of a technology like Flash isn’t a simple process, but they are close and I think it will be one of the best implementations around.

Copied here is Antonio Flores, one of our Product Managers for mobile and devices. It may be possible for him to swing you onto an upcoming pre-release for WebOS.

@Antonio – can you help with this?

Thanks,
Mark

**Update**
4/13/10 4:55PM PST

Antonio Flores Replies:

Hi Dave,

As Mark indicated, we’re holding Palm to strict ship criteria but they are close. We expect that a public beta should occur in a similar timeframe to that of Android – May/June. At this time, we’re not doing a wider pre-release program.

Regards,
Antonio

[bluenote]

nice! thanks for posting.

[Kedar]

Thanks for posting.

But the answer was kind of vague.
Everyone's big question is WHEN?

[Addyc]

Thanks for cluing us in.

Feels great that things aren't being dropped, and solid evidence of the project still in the works. :]

[Stevesrjr86]

good to hear!

[Complex Pants]

Thanks for the heads up!

[zulfaqar621#AC]

Thanks for the post. This seems like the most info we have gotten about the situation.

So Mark Doherty is saying the delay is not Adobe but Palm. Why wouldn't Adobe then light a fire under Palm's *** and tell them that if they don't get it together they will move on to Android?

What does he mean about "pre-release"?

[kill_dano]

If anything, expect it later then that. Flash was supposed to be on the Pre in October 2009 lol

That's not true. quit spreading misinformation

[darkzone]

Thanks for the post. This seems like the most info we have gotten about the situation.

So Mark Doherty is saying the delay is not Adobe but Palm. Why wouldn't Adobe then light a fire under Palm's *** and tell them that if they don't get it together they will move on to Android?

What does he mean about "pre-release"?

take solace in the part that "they are close" in certifying it. Pre-release = beta (my guess)

[mikevember]

It may be possible for him to swing you onto an upcoming pre-release for WebOS.

Swing us all onto that upcoming release please

[hellonnnewman]

Swing us all onto that upcoming release please

LOL

Great job OP! Going straight to the source was well played

[deesugar]

Swing us all onto that upcoming release please

I will do whatever I can to get as many Precentral members on it but I have to abide by whatever Adobe requires of me as far as NDA's and distribution. Gotta stay on their good side when they're extending niceties.

[Osiris_C3]

Darly’s article is somewhat misleading – Palm are required to pass our certification tests and we are actively encouraging them to meet that strict criteria. The integration of a technology like Flash isn’t a simple process, but they are close and I think it will be one of the best implementations around.

I thought 1.4 was the update that allowed it to be up to the standard for flash? If so thats a big finger pointing at palm.

[stung]

I guess it has something to do with OS stability and performance with Flash running. Perhaps webos needs to be optimized some more.

[Grabber5.0]

He is just trying to diverting our attention by throwing Palm under the bus. So he's trying to tell us that Flash is so important and awesome that OS vendors have no choice but to make changes to accommodate it? Yeah right. Big steaming pile of Adobe poo-poo version 10.

That or they are ****ed about the random Luna restarts with 1.4 because they were all set to release Flash when 1.4 came out.

[DS_Palm_Lvr]

I enjoy having a silent Pre that only makes noise when I choose to let it do so, so I can wait a long time for Flash.

[Rudementry]

I enjoy having a silent Pre that only makes noise when I choose to let it do so, so I can wait a long time for Flash.

Flash will of course be optional.

[natrixgli]

Oooh, Oooh, can't wait for banner ads on my mobile! Besides, my battery lasts way too long. I need more ways to drain it faster.

Still trying to figure out how to hover on my touch screen though, since sites like Hulu require mouseover events to reveal the controls.....

I also sure hope there will be an icon that runs "killall -9 npviewer.bin" for all the times flash makes the browser unresponsive.

-n8

[vreihen]

Palm are required to pass our certification tests and we are actively encouraging them to meet that strict criteria.

I'll bet a half-eaten bologna sandwich that Adobe's certification tests require Flash to have access to the camera and microphone, and Palm can't deliver these missing capabilities.....

[deesugar]

I thought 1.4 was the update that allowed it to be up to the standard for flash? If so thats a big finger pointing at palm.

I don't think it's that much of a shocker that another update might be needed to have a stable flash plugin work. I was only motivated to email Adobe because I've only heard negative things in the news and Adobe just posting demo videos was a poor way of communicating the future of Flash for the Palm Pre. I feel a little better now.