Most Current Android Cell Phones Will Not Have Flash….Ever

Adobe, you told me you loved me!!! But you only love my Snapdragon!!

Gizmodo recently posted an article about the upcoming Flash 10.1 (currently in Beta 3 form) and Adobe’s determination that only a few current Android phones (see Nexus One only), and upcoming handsets with the proper muscle, will actually be able to run Flash properly.

“There are two factors that’ll determine whether or not your phone is ready and able to run Flash, whenever it becomes available. First, you’ll have to worry about software: As far as we know, Adobe is only planning on supporting Android 2.0 and up, meaning that unless you’ve got a Droid or Nexus One, you’re shit out of luck—unless, of course, your phone gets treated to an upgrade.

But even then! Optimized as it may be, at least some older hardware could have issues running Flash smoothly. Answering a question about a specific phone, Antonio Flores, a man posting on Adobe’s support forums who everyone—including a community manager there—seems roundly convinced is a legitimate Adobe employee, says:”

 No, the HTC Hero will not be supported b/c it does not have the correct Android OS version and its chipset is not powerful enough. We require a device with an ARM v7 (Cortex) processor. Examples include the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets and TI OMAP3 series.

I’m looking at you, Motorola Shadow, as my next Android device.  Don’t let me down.