Adobe Flash Player 10.2 for Honeycomb is here to spice up the Tablet Market

For those who are ardent follower of Android technology, there is good news. Adobe Flash has just launched its newest version of Flash player 10.2 after leaving its beta version which was out a month or so earlier. According to Adobe, the new release promises a host of enhanced experiences including full web browsing, video, games and interactive content, for latest Android Tablets. Adobe says it has been working closely with Google to ensure tight integration and optimization between Flash Player 10.2 and the Android OS and browser capabilities. Though, in a note Adobe has clarified that to take full advantage of the latest Flash release, you must wait for Google’s latest update of the Honeycomb which is on the offing.

For the uninitiated, Honeycomb is the latest version of Android operating system, designed especially for Tablets. As Tablets have larger screens compared to mobile handsets, the earlier versions of Android could not do justice to the wide screen space available on Tablets. Honeycomb has holographic user interface, elegant notifications, refined multitasking and powerful upgrades to the web browser. Some of the inherent features of Android truly come alive on Honeycomb. With the introduction of Honeycomb, Google entered into a direct competition with Apple’s ipad.

Now that Honeycomb is poised for the latest update, there could never be more exciting days for the Tablet market. On top of it, to reinforce the Honeycomb capabilities, we now have the latest Flash Player 10.2. The deeper chemistry between the Flash player and Honeycomb enables uncompromised Web browsing of expressive applications, content and video across devices. The updated Flash player for Honeycomb provides a better embedded in- browser experience. This is possible through rendering of content as part of the web page along with components such as HTML, images and gif animations. This results in improved scrolling of web pages and allows the content to be displayed in exactly the manner in which the page designer has intended it.

On the performance side, the Flash update has been improvised to take full advantage of the multi-core GPU- enabled processors to provide enhanced experience with video, games and interactive web contents for smartphones and Tablets. It has also been able to reduce CPU usage and give upto 80% savings according to some estimates. The automatic soft keypad feature will enable Developers to optimise desktop applications for mobile devices that require keyboard inputs for interacting with rich content. The latest version has addressed the security issues that made the earlier versions of Flash players vulnerable.

All in all, the picture looks promising, though, with some bones of contention still hanging over it. The fact that the functionality feature has arrived ahead of the update to the operating system which, quite understandably, has the potential to frustrate users. The users of Motorola Xoom, which is a contender to the ipad, still have to wait for some more time to gain a superior experience on their Android Tablets. It is only a matter of time by when it will be clear which has gained better mileage in the Tablet space – the ipad or the Android supported Tablets that are doing their slow march into the market.