Analyst: Google-Adobe Flash partnership could heat up browser competition

From InfoWorld: Google's partnership this week with Adobe Systems, which has the Flash Player being bundled with the Google Chrome browser, has the potential to take relatively vigorous competition in the browser market to an even more-heated level, an IDC analyst said in a bulletin this week.

The Google-Adobe move has produced mixed reactions, with some questioning Google's commitment to Web standards like HTML5, since Flash Player is a proprietary plug-in for rich Internet applications. But IDC analyst Al Hilwa sees broader implications and calls the partnership a win for Adobe.

"The consequences of this announcement may affect how PCs, smartphones, and a slew of next-generation content consumption devices like tablet computers evolve as platforms for applications," Hilwa said. "Browsers are not just gateways to the Internet, but they also present a platform for developing and deploying user applications."

Hilwa noted Flash's ubiquity, with 99 percent of all Internet users having downloaded it to their browsers. "The integration of Flash Player into one of the major browsers is a small win for users who may reap simplicity of operation and agility in getting up to speed to the Web," Hilwa said.

"At its most basic value, it avoids the extra step to download the Flash player when a new system is purchased, installed or a new browser is installed. While users can turn the plug-in off, by default Google will update this version of Flash Player through its automatic Chrome update processes thus ensuring that security holes in the browser and its plug-in are patched promptly and kept up-to-date," he said

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