FroYo and Flash: The 411 on 10.1 on Android

As we mentioned in our hands-on post, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 is only available for Android phones running version 2.2 (FroYo) of the OS. How many phones have Android 2.2 right now? Yeah, that would be none.

Android 2.2 will come to existing phones via over-the-air updates, and Adobe lists several popular models that will work once they get the update: Google Nexus One, Motorola Droid, HTC Evo, HTC Incredible, HTC Desire, Motorola Milestone, and the Samsung Galaxy S. When will these updates happen? That depends on the manufacturers and the carriers.

But considering how long it took 2.1 to come to the Droid and other phones, it doesn’t seem likely the 2.2 update process will roll out quickly. So far we haven’t seen update timetables for any of these phones, so it’s hard to tell whether consumers should wait for 2.2 devices or just get whatever Android phone looks best right now (HTC Evo 4G, perhaps?). Can you still love a 2.1 phone knowing that Flash 10.1 won’t run on it?