Android gets Adobe Air 2.5 this year

ONLY PHONES UP to the job can expect to run Adobe Air 2.5 when it makes an appearance on Android later this year.

According to Engadget, Air 2.5 will be out in the last quarter of this year. However, the resource intensive feature set means some Android phones won't be able to run it without keeling over.

Adobe's and Google's excuses will be that they want their respective punters to have the best user experience on Air 2.5 and Android. There are already some mobile specs in the open. You'll need upwards of an ARM7 processor, OpenGL ES 2.0 and Android "Froyo" 2.2 to run Air 2.5.

But this means anyone with an older phone isn't going to get access to hardware graphics acceleration that could open up better gaming or multi-touch support.

Air 2.5 has been hovering at the back of Adobe's roadmap. It is designed to compete with Apple for developers' multi-media apps. Only last month, Adobe demoed a P2P app using Air 2.5 on Android. In fact, the app is so similar to Apple's "Face time" is has already been dubbed "Flash Time" by the chaterrati.

The INQUIRER also reported last week that Sony was rumoured to be releasing a PlayStation branded smartphone. Not so unusual but the big news was that it will be running Gingerbread - Android's next OS step up to 3.0.

This shows that Google is serious about Android's capabilities as an OS of choice for resource intensive mobile apps. If Air 2.5 can help unleash some of the apps then we're not surprised to see such high specs required for Android mobiles. µ