Poll: Adobe Confirms Flash For iPhone - Do You Care?
At the Flash on the Beach 08 conference being held in Brighton, England, Adobe's Senior Director of Engineering, Paul Betlem, confirmed that a Flash Player is in development for the iPhone. The information was provided in answer to a direct question from an audience member during the Town Hall meeting sessions held during the conference, historically a good source of Adobe news.
Adobe's Official Word
According to Betlem, Adobe is working on the iPhone Flash Player, but the iPhone is a closed platform. In other words, it's entirely up to Apple as to if and when they will allow the player onto the iPhone.
You may remember it was only earlier this spring that Apple CEO Steve Jobs deemed the current version of Flash Lite, the scaled-down version of Flash for mobile phones, as not being good enough for the iPhone. According to Jobs, Flash Lite would spoil the iPhone experience. He also noted that the desktop version wouldn't work either as it would run too slowly on the iPhone. What he called for was the creation of a "missing product in the middle."
Apparently, Adobe has heeded that call and has been busy building that middle-of-the-road version. The only question now is whether or not it will be good enough. At this point, Apple may be feeling the pressure to make Flash work considering Microsoft's recent licensing of Flash and Reader LE on Windows Mobile.
When Will It Arrive?
As to when we will see Flash on iPhone, it's anybody's guess. However, according to AppleInsider, the iPhone/iPod Touch software will be updated next month to v2.2 beta 1. Included in the update will be a newer version of Safari, which has been redesigned to relocate the Google Search bar to the right of the Address Bar. Also in the update will be a new App Store which will feature a new categories page with large category icons and more spacing between each listing.
We suppose it's too much to hope for that the new version of Flash would be pushed down with this upcoming update as well, but Apple has been known to surprise us before.
POLL: What Do You Think About Flash On iPhone?
We're looking forward to having Flash on the iPhone, but we're curious what you think. Has it been difficult for you to use your iPhone/iPod Touch without it? Or do you think "good riddance!" having never liked Flash in the first place? Please take our poll and let us know your thoughts.
Comments
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I wish Flash would just go away, particularly for video applications. Like AIR, Silverlight, and other runtime environments, it gives mainstream users a proprietary interface that breaks the UI principles they are used to. It also introduces new privacy and security considerations that mainstream users are ill-equipped to even recognize.
Posted by: Logical Extremes
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October 1, 2008 7:23 AM
Yeah, I care... a LOT. We do a lot of web development in FLEX delivered through the flash player. Opening up a platform like the iPhone (and hopefully Android) to consume this kind of web application would be a great way to deliver compelling web applications to a mobile device.
Posted by: Stu Rich
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October 1, 2008 7:24 AM
Flash is the brwoser's not my main concern.. what I'd love to see would be flash ports/devs enabled within the SDK hence, flash-enabled native apps!
Posted by: Simon | October 1, 2008 7:32 AM
Wow. I go the opposite way -- I just wish there was a consistent platform and implementation for video.
The new FF 3.0.3, for example, has screwed up my (and everybody else's) flash implementation. If you do anything on a page that is running a flash video, the video hesitates and reloads.
Try running a video on youtube and then drag the scroller on the alternative video selection to the right up and down, you'll see the video hesitate. Very annoying bug, doesn't happen in IE 6 or 7, didn't happen earlier in FF.
Posted by: Ted Murphy | October 1, 2008 7:38 AM
No, I do not. Adobe thinks they are going to force Apple's hand, and Apple is not going to allow Flash on the iPhone. John Gruber had a pretty succinct post that explained it yesterday... allowing Flash would allow developers to work around Cocoa and thereby around the App Store. Makes no sense for Apple to allow it.
Posted by: Cyndy
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October 1, 2008 7:43 AM
Hmm, lets just hope this time it'll provide the user some nice features.
Posted by: ITrush | October 1, 2008 7:46 AM
As a developper I hate Flash.
As a website customer, it is a great news. There are so many website I needed to browse and I couldn't because of flash......
So many designers a too much creative using Flash.....
Posted by: idont | October 1, 2008 7:54 AM
I'm not sure I care about the iPhone in the first place. As a user, I would never buy an overpriced toy that *somebody else controls*. As a developer, I can already target a lot of platforms with a single .jar or .swf file. I don't need to lock myself into a walled garden, I really don't. And now Flash is going to become an open platform, unless Adobe lied. So I do say "good riddance"... but not to who you might expect.
Posted by: Felix Pleşoianu | October 1, 2008 8:54 AM
Of course I care; most porn sites use Flash for their videos.. HAHAHA I am KIDDING! (or am I?)
Posted by: Sebastien | October 1, 2008 9:05 AM
What I wish would happen is that Apple would support the Flash FLV video format for playback within the Quicktime framework of the iPhone OS, the format is open (albeit proprietary) so there's no licence restrictions for them to deal with in regards to Adobe.
This support could be offered without having to address the wider issue of allowing a third-party runtime on the iPhone without opening up the whole can of worms that that entails (Java, Silverlight etc).
Posted by: Rick Curran | October 1, 2008 9:49 AM
I care and I don't even have an iPhone! I think this is a great advancement and can only imagine how great it will be to have a smartphone that has flash capabilities.
Posted by: Nick Stamoulis | October 1, 2008 11:46 AM
I care.
Posted by: Bill | October 1, 2008 12:37 PM
Nick, I hope you are kidding. My Nokia E51, released about a year ago, has built-in Flash support. My iRiver Clix 2, released around the same time, has... built-in Flash support. For Windows Pocket PC, you can download a Flash plugin from Adobe. You don't need to *imagine* what flash can do on a smartphone, see for yourself *right now*.
Posted by: Felix Pleşoianu | October 1, 2008 9:30 PM
I acre allot. This is the biggest software fault with the current iPhone no Flash support
Posted by: Gareth Murran | October 2, 2008 6:19 AM
If you don't care you are living in a developer's box....get out a little more, please
Posted by: coomaraswamee | October 2, 2008 7:52 AM