Apple teams up with Adobe for iPhone Flash at long last

With Android getting all Flash-ey, Apple's "Goldilocks" position on Flash -- the full Flash player is too hefty, Flash Lite is too weak -- seemed pretty untenable. Now Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen has revealed that Apple and Adobe are "collaborating" on making Flash a reality on the iPhone, citing the technical challenge it presents. What's clear is that with all this work to do, it doesn't seem they're going the watered-down Flash Lite route, but we're trying not to hold our breath for a full-on, Hulu-friendly version that will finally help us get that Doogie Howser fix on the go. Naturally, there's no word on when this will hit.

[Via AppleInsider]

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 1st 2009 7:33PM]

does the palm pre have flash adobe player.,????

[Gibson Posted Feb 2nd 2009 12:01PM]

Nobody knows.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 1st 2009 7:33PM]

does anyone know if palm pre comes with adobe flash player.,??
is there a touchscreen cell in the usa that already has flash player built in??

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 1st 2009 8:54PM]

u guys think this will be on iPhone 3rd generation? will it have something to do with hardware? or will it just come out as an update on existing phones?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 1st 2009 9:00PM]

Hah! Even Gruber agrees with me:

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/02/01/flash-challenge

Oh and that quote from duh CEO in duh Davros about '..the ball is in our court."

You can interpret that as : "Oh noes, you don't have to follow up with Apple about our 'collaboration'... cos we need to get our act together." [and our stock is butthurt right now so I have to say SOMETHING before it heads to 18. Again].

Lessee. Google has to go thru the AppStore. MSFT also, has to go thru the AppStore. You're telling me Adobe doesn't? WTF? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

'Collaboration' is the new 'synergy'. I'm sure that the Repubs and the Dems are 'collaborating' with Obama.

Now'd be a good time to short ADBE. If you have any.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 1st 2009 9:17PM]

You guys see the lead-up....right? New iphone rumours....Flash development spark up.....New processer lineup for handheld devices.... Top notch iphone generation is the obvious "next" step for apple. (Not to mention big bumps for storage)

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 1st 2009 10:01PM]

Flash is not only for websites - think video, enhanced content within HTML sites, multimedia etc. I agree we don't need flash so we can see the gabocorp site!

[MobileGeorge Posted Feb 1st 2009 10:36PM]

Flash is evil. You can support Flash video (FLV) without supporting the CPU/battery-sucking SWF Flash apps.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 1st 2009 10:52PM]

Welcome to 2008 Apple.
Always behind on the technology curve (I said technology, not UI, and even then I still prefer other UI's).

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 1st 2009 11:06PM]

You know what -- uninformed geeks, i.e., morons like you are just getting tiresome.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 1st 2009 11:37PM]

Prove me wrong.
Apple is always always behind on the technology curve.
All they do is take whats already out there, put a new GUI on it (not always for the better), give it an ol spit shine, and then shovel it out there for the masses who like to pay more for less, and yesteryears technology at that.

Every single piece of technology in the iPhone has already been implemented by some other competitor.
Every single addition that comes to it is also available for other competitors already.
Every single thing about their computers, be it the hard drives, or GPU's, or CPU's, RAM, Chipsets, etc. is tech already available many months if not a year or so in advance on PC's. The only novel thing about Apple comps are firewire, if you want to nitpick, but even that is supported by only a minority.

So, prove me wrong.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 2nd 2009 10:59AM]

Knowing Apple, the first and second gen iPhones won't get flash. They'll release a new iphone this summer with flash, but despite nearly identical hardware, the older iphones will not get flash. Maybe if we're lucky, apple will charge money for the firmware update that adds it, and then hackers make it free for jailbroken phones or something.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 2nd 2009 7:08AM]

I still think we'll see it on Android first.

[MrGlitch Posted Feb 2nd 2009 11:18AM]

So, wait, the iPhone can run all these games, and the company and fanboiz keep harping about how powerful it is... but it's technically challenging to bring flash to it?

Then again, apple can't update their website in less than a few hours, so who knows.

[Gibson Posted Feb 2nd 2009 12:00PM]

This probably means the Palm Pre does not have Flash support.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 2nd 2009 2:52PM]

Ya because my safari doesn't crash enough...
I hope they git this right...

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 10th 2009 2:06PM]

Will this be a software update or a brand new device?