HTC today announced that the new HTC Hero is the first Android phone to ship with support for Adobe Flash. Both Sorenson and On2 VP6 codecs will be supported.
“As the first Android device with Flash, the new HTC Hero represents a key milestone for Android and the Flash Platform. With close to 80 percent of all videos online delivered with Adobe Flash technology, consumers want to access rich Web content on-the-go,” said David Wadhwani, vice president and general manager, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “The collaboration with HTC offers people a more complete Flash based Web browsing experience today and presents an important step towards full Web browsing with Flash Player 10 on mobile phones in the future.”
The HTC Hero is 4.4 inches tall by 2.2 inches wide and 0.5 inches thick. In addition, it features a 3.2-inch HVGA touch screen with an anti-fingerprint screen coating.
Other highlights of the HTC Hero include GPS, a digital compass, gravity sensor, a 5-megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack (Thank you for listening HTC), and a microSD expansion slot. A dedicated search button on the phone provides a more contextual search, looking through not only your contact list and e-mail, but your installed apps like Twitter and LastFM.
The HTC Hero will be available in Europe starting in July and in Asia later this summer, while a “distinct” North American version will ship later in 2009. However, pricing was not announced at this time.
A demo of the user experience enabled by the Flash Platform on the HTC Hero and the Android operating system can be viewed at www.adobe.com/go/htchero.
