Microsoft’s New Windows 7 Phone Also Doesn’t Have Flash

Leander Kahney ()

Microsoft’s New Windows 7 Phone Also Doesn’t Have FlashBig shocker: Microsoft isn’t supporting Adobe’s Flash in its brand new Windows Phone 7 operating system.

Windows Phone 7 joins Apple’s iPhone and iPad in snubbing the widely-used plug-in.

The news was delivered to Information Week, which received a surprise email from Adobe saying:

“While the newest version of Windows Phone won’t support Flash at initial availability, both companies are working to include a browser plug-in for the full Flash player in future versions of Windows Phone. More details will be shared at Microsoft MIX next month.”

Information Week is skeptical. It says it’s not clear if Flash is coming to WinMo 7 at all.

Microsoft launched WinMo 7 on Monday to great acclaim. Blogs like Gizmodo and Wired’s Gadget Lab, which got to play with the new system at the Mobile World Congress, say it looks better and is easier to use than the iPhone. (Giz: Windows Phone 7 Interface: Microsoft Has Out-Appled Apple; Gadget Lab: Hands-On With Windows Phone 7 Series

Of course, Microsoft makes its own Silverlight platform, a rich-media platform which competes with Flash on the web.

Although Apple has remained officially mum on the issue of Flash, it’s widely understood that the company views the plug-in as buggy and power-hungry.

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Information Week: Windows Mobile 7 Won’t Get Flash

Via Gadget Lab.

10 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Apple, Apple Tablet, iPad, iPhone, iPhone Apps, News, Software |

  • http://www.hoggworks.com/ Brian

    “initial availability” seems the key here. After all, the new optimized-for-mobile Flash player 10.1 isn’t out until April, so it would be pretty weird if MS either put an unreleased version of the app in their phone, or held off releasing the thing until April.

    This seems like a small-to-non-story.

  • mlahero

    Agreed. If the article is correct and M$ and Adobe are working together then this really isnt that much of a story, its certainly not being snubbed. The real story will be if M$ fully reject Flash to favour Silverlight though this really does seem like a perfect opportunity for M$ to get an edge over Apple.

  • nabil2199

    ‘it’s first step into mobile’? if by that you mean its first step into mobile? have you forgotten the n900 with its flash 9.4 and future 10.1?

  • John

    Can anyone name any non-intel devices that do fully support flash? And I’m not talking just about video here.

  • http://www.metrokids.ca Conrad

    I’m interested to see how Flash does on Android and WiMo7. To see if it is a power-hungry battery-killer like we have been lead to believe.

    Note: I don’t miss Flash on my iPhone or iPod Touch… and I have Click2Flash installed on my MBP.

  • Mark

    I’m actually kind of excited for WinPho 7. The design is all Zune and while I have little desire to buy a Zune I love the OS on the device and the Zune desktop app is hella-cool.

    If I had disposable income I’d consider this as a secondary phone to my iPhone.

    As for Flash, let’s be honest. It’s not really built for touch devices anyway. Other than video everything else that’s built with Flash is based more on hovering over components rather than clicking on them to come alive. Now, if Adobe made a separate button that you hold down so that you could simulate hovering with the other finger then yes, maybe it could work.

    But of course that would probably require even more code which could draw even more power from the device it’s running on.

    Oh well, don’t really miss Flash on my iPhone and I’m glad that MS isn’t the only one who thinks it’s buggy and power hungry. Now Apple can’t be accused of being biased towards Adobe.

  • http://ObamaPacman.com ObamaPacman

    @John,

    Flash doesn’t even work well on intel macs due to Adobe’s poor implementation.

  • mlahero

    @ObamaPacman

    Flash doesn’t work well on intel macs due to Adobe’s poor implementation AND the lack of deep level system access that Apple has imposed on Adobe (and other third party plugin developers). Oh and sucky Flash Developers writing scrappy inefficient code.

    I’m loving the look of this new windows mobile UI. Clean and efficient, and a nice change.

  • bam

    “AND the lack of deep level system access that Apple has imposed on Adobe”

    [citation needed]

  • http://ObamaPacman.com ObamaPacman