Adobe pulled off something of a surprise as the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco when the company demonstrated Flash and Adobe AIR running on an Android-based touchscreen tablet. The prototype tablet apparently played Flash content without any problems, according to Zedomax, which means Adobe may have finally shown that Flash can run acceptably on mobile devices.
The tablet device looked to be based on NVIDIA’s prototype tablet hardware that could be available for consumers near the end of the year.
Assuming production models perform as well as the prototype demonstration, and offers battery life that’s in line with the iPad, competition in Apple’s redefined tablet market could heat up.
The demonstration is also good news for Adobe since the company needed to show its Flash technology running smoothly on portable devices following its weak response to an open letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs that slammed Flash.
The two companies have been openly sparring ever since Apple revised the license for iPhone OS 4 developers to block third-party tools that can’t directly link to Apple’s APIs. Adobe had been showing off its Flash CS5 module that converts Flash apps into native iPhone apps ahead of the announcement.
Whether or not Adobe’s prototype tablet running Google’s Android platform will be enough to convince Apple that Flash belongs on mobile devices, however, remains to be seen.