When Apple released its iOS devices, it chose not to support Flash. The standard was supported by Android devices, but performance varied and there was no consistent user experience across different devices. Adobe actually pulled the plug on Flash for Android, but Amazon has been quietly working to bring it back for their Kindle Fire tablet owners. The company has revealed that it has been testing Kindle Fire flash support with a select group of users since February.
They’re basically offering an “experimental streaming viewer” which lets these users view Flash video on CBS.com, NBC.com, Fox.com and more. Kurt Kufeld of Amazon said that the company had heard for its customers that they wanted the ability to view Flash content, hence this effort. It works on Kindle Fire’s Silk browser and partly on Amazon’s cloud technologies. The company says that in its first month of availability, those select users viewed 1.4 million minutes of Flash video. Amazon says they will continue to support Flash and will expand this viewer to support more sites in the future. The company hasn’t said if it plans on supporting Flash based games or other similar content.
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