ARM, Adobe collaborate on mobile web browsing

LONDON, USA:  Software maker Adobe Systems and chip designer ARM Holdings will collaborate to bring better Web services to ARM-powered devices including cellphones from most of the world's biggest handset makers.

U.S.-based Adobe, which makes tools for the Internet's most popular video software and made possible the rise of sites such as Google's YouTube, will optimise its Flash Player 10 and Adobe AIR for mobile phones based on ARM processors.

New ranges of cellphones led by Apple's iPhone have stimulated consumers' appetite for Web browsing, game playing and movie-watching on the go but pages are often hard to access and work far less well than on a desktop computer.

ARM's marketing chief Ian Drew told Reuters: "It's all about bringing the Internet experience everywhere."

Most of the world's biggest handset makers, including Nokia and Samsung as well as Apple and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, have processors designed by UK-based ARM at their core.

The two companies said in a statement on Monday a series of ARM-based processors for cellphones, set-top boxes and other devices adapted for Adobe's Flash 10 and AIR should be available in the second half of 2009.

The collaboration, part of Adobe's Open Screen Project, was endorsed in the statement by several chipmakers including Texas Instruments, Nvidia and Freescale.