As Business Wire is reporting, Palm has joined Adobe"s Open Screen Project, a project in which many industry leading mobile phone developers are "working together to provide a consistent runtime environment and user experience across mobile phones, desktops, and other consumer electronics devices."
The Open Screen Project has many well-known partners, including Nokia, Intel, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and even the BBC. The Project benefits many people, from OEMs down to end users, because it focuses on "reducing fragmentation through a consistent runtime environment that reflects the needs of the various ecosystem constituents." For more information about the Open Screen Project, please visit its website.
In addition to this, it has been announced that Palm"s upcoming smartphone, named the Pre, will support Adobe"s Flash technology, allowing the phone to view a wide range of Flash content around the Internet. This is great news, as many who are currently using the most recent generation of smartphones, such as the iPhone, wish to have Flash support on their device. With Palm working with Adobe to integrate it into webOS, it may lead other companies to follow suit. An interesting line in Business Wire"s article states that, "Flash Player for smartphones is expected to be available to handset manufacturers at the end of 2009."
Palm"s Pre is expected to be available for retail in the first half of 2009.