HTC is doing a great job of prolonging its time in the Android limelight, ahead of launches from larger rivals like Samsung and Motorola.
It is poised to launch its third Android smartphone, the Hero, which T-Mobile will ship in Europe next month, and will trump BlackBerry and of course iPhone by introducing Adobe Flash.
The Hero will be the first Android phone to run Flash Player, and HTC says it will be one of the first smartphones to upgrade to the upcoming mobile version of Flash Player 10, which will support PC-class functionality rather than the current Lite implementation for handsets.
The Hero - which T-Mobile will ship in the US after the summer with the brand myTouch 3G and some specific north American features - will not initially support Flash Player 10, and so will run programs written in ActionScript 2, rather than the imminent ActionScript 3.
HTC is part of the Adobe Open Screen Project to bring Flash Player 10 to phones and expects to add this in the first half of 2010.
Adobe demonstrated Flash on Android last week, showing the Penguin Swing game and a travel search on the Expedia web site. It has confirmed that it will release mobile Flash Player 10 in beta in October.
“We are bringing Flash Player 10 to smartphone class devices to enable the latest web browsing experience,” CEO Shantanu Narayen said. “Multiple partners have already received early versions of this release and we expect to release a beta version for developers at our MAX Conference in October. “Google's Android, Nokia's Symbian OS, Windows Mobile, and the new Palm webOS will be among the first devices to support web browsing with the newest Flash player.”