With Apple's position clear, Adobe delivers Acrobat Reader to Android platform even as Android pulls even with iPhone OS
While Apple attempts to use its clout in the mobile web marketplace to kill Flash, the potential heir to the mobile throne, Google, has opted for the open route and, thus far, has encouraged Adobe to join the party. Last week, at Google I/O, Adobe demonstrated a beta version of Flash 10.1 running on the Android mobile device operating system. But Adobe had a few more Android tricks up its sleeve.
On May 21, 2010, Adobe announced that Adobe Reader is now available in the Android application marketplace. First release features, according to Adobe, include:
Adobe Reader for Android offers multi-touch gestures, like pinch-and-zoom, as well as double-tap-zoom, flick-scrolling and panning. We've also added a "reflow" mode, which will take text-heavy documents with wide margins, and automatically wrap the content for easy viewing on smaller screens.
So, for the last several years I have used an iPhone as my personal smartphone. But, with developments like this, and a flood of sweet-looking devices running Android, it's hard not to consider trying the Android ecosystem. Then again, I'm also intrigued by the potential of Windows Phone 7, so I hope that Adobe has plans to support what looks to be another powerhouse smartphone OS. Decisions, decisions.