ITWire

Although many iPhone users say they want Flash on the iPhone, it wasn’t until the SDK was released that companies could officially start investigating whether they could get their intended software to work with Apple’s strict SDK requirements.

When Sun said they’d bring Java to the iPhone, it seems they said this without having consulted Apple first. Unfortunately Apple hates being bullied around, and their silence on the issue has been deafening.

So, you’d think that one of Apple’s other big partners, Adobe, would have carefully thought twice, or even thrice, before making any suggestions they would work to bring Flash to the iPhone without having Apple’s blessing.

Sadly, that didn’t happen when Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen made a statement in an earnings call to analysts, proclaiming in an answer to a question that:

“Well, you really believe that Flash is synonymous with the internet and frankly, anybody who wants to browse the web and experience the web's glory really needs Flash support. We were very excited about the announcement from Windows Mobile, adoption of Flash on their devices and the fact that we've shipped 0.5 billion devices now, non-PC devices.”

Narayen then continued saying: “So we are also committed to bringing the Flash experience to the iPhone and we will work with Apple. We've evaluated the SDK, we can now start to develop the Flash player ourselves and we think it benefits our joint customers. So we want to work with Apple to bring that capability to the device.”

But now comes news of a carefully worded backflip of sorts to better acknowledge Apple’s power in the relationship, after worldwide publicity of Narayen’s statements. Adobe must have realised Narayen’s statement wouldn’t have been welcome by Apple, especially without any agreement having been reached first.

According to posts around the Internet, Adobe’s new follow-up statement is as follows:

“Adobe has evaluated the iPhone SDK and can now start to develop a way to bring Flash Player to the iPhone. However, to bring the full capabilities of Flash to the iPhone web-browsing experience we do need to work with Apple beyond and above what is available through the SDK and the current license around it. We think Flash availability on the iPhone benefits Apple and Adobe’s millions of joint customers, so we want to work with Apple to bring these capabilities to the device.”

The question is, does Apple really want to work with Adobe? And what does Bill Perry, evangelist for mobile and devices at Adobe have to say on the likelihood of Flash getting onto the iPhone, in light of Narayen’s statement and Adobe’s subsequent ‘new statement’?

Please read onto page 2.