Between December 2006 and March 2007, the number of Internet users with Flash Player 9 installed on their machines jumped from 56.4% to 84.0%. Rock on, Adobe! That’s an amazing boost, and definitely a major success.

Experts declare that 80% is the magic number for adoption before most Flash developers are willing to target a new player version. Oddly enough, Flash Player 9 has been available since June 2006, while the primary authoring tool, Flash CS3, has only been available for about a week or two. As designers and developers upgrade from the previous versions, many won’t need to change the settings for new projects to target an older player. They can begin playing with the new language, ActionScript 3, right away.

Now that we’ve hit critical mass, it’s time to start hearing rumors about Flash Player 10. …I kid, I kid. Go have fun with Flash CS3 for a while first. 😉