Android This Week: Froyo Released; 100,000 Phones per Day; Flash Beta Launched

This week saw the release of Android 2.2, aka Froyo, by Google at its annual I/O developer conference. Android 2.2 is two to three times faster than the previous version of the platform due to the inclusion of a just-in-time (JIT) compiler. Indeed, it’s currently the “world’s fastest mobile browser,” according to the company. I’ve been using Android 2.2 for the past week on a Nexus One supplied by Google and Adobe and have shot a video of the performance gains.

Also at I/O, Google revealed that some 100,000 Android phones are activated every day — a significant jump over the 65,000 figure reported less than a month ago. Numbers like that make it easy to see how Android’s market share has grown 8 percent over the past year.

And Adobe finally launched the public beta for Flash Player 10.1 on the Android platform, bringing desktop functionality to the mobile device. Adobe partnered with Google to make Android the first smartphone platform to get the new capabilities. But while Flash is available in the Android Market, it’s only for devices running Android 2.2. And since there aren’t any of those for sale yet, until Google releases the Android update, users will have to be patient.

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