New Brightcove development kit supports Android's embrace of Flash

June 22, 2010 | Kim-Mai Cutler

Brightcove released a new software development kit today for Android applications that includes mobile templates supporting Adobe’s Flash technology

Developers will be able to design native apps that allow video playback, search and discovery or use out-of-the-box templates that play video using Flash.

“I’m really happy that we’re standing tall with Adobe as they release Flash Player 10.1,” wrote Jeff Whatcott, Brightcove’s vice president of marketing, who was involved in the development of Flash at Macromedia. “The last six months of rhetoric have been particularly bruising for Flash, and it’s great to see Adobe answering their critics with code.”

Brightcove’s move comes as it has to support a fractured market with a plethora of competing devices and platforms. Android’s market share is on the increase, and the Google-backed operating system came to support more than 20 percent of mobile web traffic last month, according to Quantcast.

“We’ve entered an era where every website owner must have a strategy for the PC Web, Mobile Web, iOS Apps and Android Apps,” Whatcott added. “For our customers, it’s not about making high stakes either/or bets on one platform over another, it’s about a cross-platform both/and strategy.”

Adobe released Flash 10.1, the first full version of Flash to work on mobile phones, for download on Android last night. It says Flash 10.1 should be available on other phone platforms shortly.

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