Mr. Jobs-if-you-please has left nothing open to interpretation with regards to Apple’s efforts to integrate Flash with its mobile Safari browser present on the iPhone and iPod Touch. In a nutshell, Stevie no likie. Earlier this month, Jobs made his opinion public when he stated that currently-available Flash Player options for mobile devices just aren’t up to snuff for Apple’s handsets. Some may have taken Jobs’ remarks as an issued challenge and if that was the case, Adobe appears to be stepping up to the plate. During a conference call on Tuesday, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen definitively stated that Adobe is currently working with the SDK to create a version of Flash Player for the iPhone / iPod Touch.
“We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone,” Narayen said. “We have evaluated [the software developer tools] and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash Player ourselves.”
It is thought that certain limitations in the SDK may prevent a fully functional Flash Player plug-in from being developed without assistance from Apple and special rights being granted to Adobe’s finished product. Said SDK limitations would compound matters when added to other issues that the two companies may be having, reportedly as a result of unrelated negotiations. This may in fact be the case, so we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed that Adobe’s offering pleases Sir Steve enough to warrant a pow wow. Apple and Adobe have worked out many differences in the past so there most definitely is some hope.
