Opera Mobile will support Flash and HTML5 video... soon

Speaking frankly and quite technically, Pavel Studený of the Opera Mobile team has posted some info about its Android development experience. The post itself is pretty thin on details, except for two gems: both Flash and HTML5 video are coming to Opera Mobile.

The interesting thing is, Pavel doesn't say that Flash and HTML5 support are only coming to Android; in fact, he says "if you have Flash player installed on your phone, Opera will support it." Now, it's not like Flash actually runs on many mobile phones, but it still leaves some interesting possibilities open -- will it support Flash Lite for Symbian, for example? For now, though, only Android 2.1 and newer has access to an official Flash player. HTML5 video support, on the other hand, is far less exciting -- in fact, most mobile browsers, including the upcoming Firefox For Mobile, already support it. Opera Mobile is actually playing catch-up in that regard.

Beyond the Flash and HTML5 news, Pavel talks about the trials and tribulations of writing apps for Android. Unlike Symbian, the operating system behind Nokia phones, Android is very young, very fresh, and prone to rapid changes that developers sometimes struggle to stay on top of. The trade-off, of course, is that Android is accruing exciting features, and thus apps and users, at break-neck speeds.

Posted in: Android,Mobile