Support for Adobe's Flash is one of the most requested features by iPhone users since its launch. Therefore it has not been surprising to have heard tons of rumors and speculations about Flash coming to the iPhone like this, this and this one.
However, so far it has been a case of wishful thinking. But that might change based on Adobe Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen's comments made to Bloomberg Television from the World Economic Forum in Davos that Apple and Adobe are collaborating to bring Flash to the iPhone.
Flash is a very popular browser plug-in that delivers animation and video content on the web. There has been so many rumors and speculations that I have always wondered why the two companies couldn't work together to bring one of the most requested features by iPhone users since its launch.
Adobe's Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen had raised hopes in March 2008 when he commented that Adobe had downloaded the iPhone SDK and are planning on building a Flash Player for the iPhone and distributing the iPhone app via Apple's iTunes App Store.
This was despite Apple CEO Steve Jobs comment that the current Adobe offerings were not acceptable. Flash Lite, the version designed specifically for mobile devices, just wasn't good enough and Adobe's desktop product was just too slow on the iPhone.
In September 2008, Paul Betlem, Sr. Director of Engineering at Adobe, had again confirmed that Adobe is indeed developing a Flash Player for the iPhone when he was asked a direct question by the audience at a Town Hall meeting at the Flash on the Beach Conference.
Adobe and ARM had also jointly announced that they will be collaborating to optimize and enable Adobe Flash Player 10 and Adobe AIR for ARM powered devices. It was speculated that the joint optimization project could bring Adobe's Flash player to the iPhone which currently uses the ARM11 family of processors. However, it all seemed like wishful thinking.
But It looks like sense has finally prevailed, as Narayen’s made these comments to Bloomberg Television from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland:
He went on to add:
You can watch the video of the interview below (you can skip straight to the 3 minute 30 seconds mark of the video to listen to what Narayen has to say about Flash on the iPhone and Apple):
Narayen did not make any comment on when we can expect Flash coming to the iPhone, but it will be great to see Flash support as one of the features in June when Apple is speculated to release iPhone firmware 3.0 along with the next generation iPhone.
What do you think? We would love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to leave a comment.
[via Bloomberg]
I'm thinkin' it's about time. Apple needs to listen up.