At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday, Abode proudly revealed that the adoption of its Flash technology has surpassed the company’s earlier projections, thanks largely to the increasing popularity of the Android devices.

According to Abode, while the company had estimated, at its MAX Developer Conference in early 2010, that 9 percent of mobile handsets will support Flash during the year, the actual year-end results revealed nearly 12 percent mobile phones supported Flash.

Going by the specific statistics shared by Abode, there are currently 35+ certified mobile devices which support Flash; and nearly 20 million mobile handsets that run the plugin.

In an interview, Anup Murarka - director of product marketing for Flash at Adobe Systems – revealed that, among the first US smartphones running Flash, were the Droid line of handsets, including the Droid X and the HTC Evo.

Further noting that the Flash “usage points to continued growth,” Murarka said: “Flash is hardly going away.”

Murarka also added that even though “Apple's view is that users don't need Flash and can get to the Web without it,” the comments that Abode gets from the users clearly reflect that “users can enjoy more of the Web by having Flash.”

Murarka revealed that, in 2011, Adobe is “going back to its roots” to focus on what made Flash successful over the years, including areas like games, copy protection for video content and the ability to build complex and rich applications.