Adobe CEO: We’re working on building Flash player for Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch

“Adobe Systems Inc. has begun work to create a media player destined for Apple Inc.’s iPhone [and iPod touch], Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen said Tuesday, thus adding a new wrinkle to a standoff between the two long-term partners,” Ben Charny reports for Dow Jones.

“In comments widely reported last month, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said the company’s iPhone [and iPod touch] hadn’t adopted Adobe’s mobile version of its Flash program because of technical and performance concerns. At the time, he suggested Adobe work on a new version of the player,” Charny reports.

“On Tuesday, when asked about the issue during a conference call with investors, Narayen said the company had since obtained the software developer tools Apple released last month. The tools will let Adobe build a Flash player for the iPhone [and iPod touch], then distribute it through Apple’s iTunes online store, he said,” Charny reports.

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Len” for the heads up.]

Adobe will distribute it through iTunes Store if Apple approves it, is what Narayen should have said. Given Steve Jobs’ most recent statements about Flash, that’s a big “if.”

[UPDATE: March 18, 10:20pm EDT: Adobe backpedals on Flash for iPhone statements]

36 Comments

  1. Oh get off it already MDN. Flash is everywhere like it or not. It will be a huge plus for the iphone. I love Apple as much as the next guy, but worshipping Jobs like he can walk on water is getting really old. He can be wrong you know.

  2. “We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone”

    So is he saying that without Flash there wouldn’t be any Internet? What a windbag.

    Durder,

    So what if Flash is “everywhere”. There are enough sites out there that does not have Flash and are just working fine.

  3. Steve may have a point. The iPhone feels snappy with Apple’s finely tuned software on it. If you bog it down with every clunky plug-in available for desktop computers the iPhone may not be able to keep up.

    I want a snappy, secure, and reliable iPhone. If it doesn’t feel that way it will be Apple that will get the blame.

  4. Apple will not limit Adobe’s posting of an updated Flash. Perhaps the biggest news is in fact that Adobe is going to specifically develop a Flash variant for the iPhone. That is the real news, not whether or not Stevie boy is going to click the accept button.

  5. The man deceived his investors. He knows full well that Flash won’t be on the phone just because Adobe implements it, and SJ has made it very clear that Apple’s not interested. Also, anyone who reads the SDK’s license agreement will see that any turing-complete interpreters won’t be approved: that eliminates Flash, and Java.

    -jcr

Reader Feedback

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.