Flash on Apple's iPhone has been on and off several times in the last few weeks. On Wednesday, Adobe Systems dampened expectations following a report that it would build a Flash player for the smartphone.
The report, first cited in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, said Adobe had begun work on a Flash player for the iPhone. The Journal cited remarks by Adobe Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen, who reportedly made the comments during a conference call with investors. He said Apple's recent release of a software developers kit (SDK) gave his company the tools it needed to create a media player for the popular iPhone.
The Fine Print
According to news reports, Narayen said Adobe had evaluated the SDK and "we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves."
Adobe said Wednesday it has "evaluated the iPhone SDK and can now start to develop a way to bring Flash Player to the iPhone." But it added, "to bring the full capabilities of Flash to the iPhone Web-browsing experience" the company needs to work with Apple for capabilities beyond what the SDK allows.
One of the problems is the SDK's fine print, which is being interpreted by many observers as prohibiting the kind of plug-in capabilities offered by Flash. To use the SDK for those purposes, Adobe would need cooperation and permission from Apple.
Earlier this month, following persistent reports on various Web blogs that Flash on the iPhone was imminent, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the current Flash mobile player is not ready for the iPhone.
He said Flash Lite, designed for mobile devices, is not powerful enough, and regular Flash, designed for full-featured computers, runs too slowly on the iPhone. "There's this missing product in the middle," he told the Dow Jones news service.
Developers Looking Elsewhere?
Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst with industry research firm Forrester, said it was "interesting to see the discontinuity of Apple's approach to all this." He noted that Apple is promoting the iPhone as offering the full Web, but Flash is a key part of that environment.
There appear to be more restrictions emerging from the conditions surrounding the SDK, he said, plus Apple takes a "hefty cut" from purchased applications on its new App Store. He said Apple is acting in the protective way that telephone companies have acted for years.
Hammond said he is detecting "a certain amount of frustration" among developers. The more barriers Apple puts in front of developers, he noted, the more they will look for other platforms.
In particular, he pointed out that Google's open-source Android platform for mobile devices could be a more fertile ground for third-party applications. Additionally, Microsoft recently announced it is licensing Flash Lite for future versions of Windows Mobile.
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