Adobe’s Flash software – one of the most common technologies for watching video on a computer – will soon be available on most smartphones following major deals with the majority of the world’s software platforms and device vendors. Adobe today said its Flash Player 10.1 should be available on most higher-end handsets by 2010. It is the first major product of an initiative known as the Open Screen Project, which aims to create a flexible media platform for films and games that can run on any device; from set top boxes to mobile phones. In a statement, the company noted that “a public developer beta of the browser-based runtime is expected to be available for Windows Mobile, Palm webOS and desktop operating systems including Windows, Macintosh and Linux later this year. Public betas for Google Android and Symbian OS are expected to be available in early 2010.” Adobe has also struck a deal with RIM to bring Flash Player to Blackberry smartphones, whilst Motorola and Nokia said they will support the technology in their devices next year. Chip makers Qualcomm and Nvidia are also on board. A notable absentee from the list is Apple’s iPhone. The two companies have not seen eye-to-eye recently, with Apple CEO Steve Jobs once reportedly declaring that Flash was “too slow” to run on the iPhone.

The new initiative will allow the same version of Flash that works on PCs to work on smartphones, rather than via ‘Flash Lite,’ the version of Flash for mobile devices developed by the firm some years ago. Tapping the smartphone market is now increasingly vital for Adobe. In May 2008, Adobe launched the Open Screen Project, a group of close to 50 companies including handset makers and content creators, which committed to making Flash run on different devices, while – in February – Adobe and Nokia created a US$10 million fund for developers who create applications for mobile devices using Flash.