There’s been a good amount of talk about Flash hitting the mobile space recently, and it looks like the iPhone will get to taste some sweet, sweet Flash support soon enough. Adobe CEO Shanatanu Narayen has announced that Adobe has begun developing a Flash-solution for the iPhone, using Apple’s official iPhone SDK.
“We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone,” he said. “We have evaluated (the software developer tools) and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves.”
iPhone users have been waiting for Flash to hit the iPhone, and hopes were high until Steve Jobs put the veritable lid on the issue. The desktop version of Adobe’s Flash player was just too awkward and slow to work well on the iPhone. And, according to Jobs, the current Flash implementation tailored to mobile phones, Flash Lite, just isn’t good enough to be used with the Web. Unfortunately, there’s no in-between offering that brings real Flash to the mobile space.
So, Adobe has started crafting that sought after middle-ground Flash player for the iPhone. There is, however, one potential problem with Adobe’s decision to go forward with Flash development for the iPhone. According to Apple’s guidelines, Adobe would have to develop a Flash solution as a stand-alone application – Apple prohibits plug-ins. This raises the question of how Flash would work on the iPhone. Add to that, Apple and Adobe’s apparent quarrels in unrelated negotiations, and Adobe could have some trouble deploying Flash on the iPhone.
Let’s hope this works out. Because, if it does, iPhone users can look forward to some real-deal Flash in the near future – perhaps in June, when Apple goes live with the iPhone v2.0 firmware.
[Via: AppleInsider]