Adobe Could Release Flash for iPhone if Apple Approves

[MacRumors]

Flash Magazine reports on comments made by Adobe's Sr. Director of Engineering Paul Betlem during a Town Hall meeting at the Flash on the Beach Conference.

Betlem provides some followup for comments made by Adobe's Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen in March. Narayen claimed that Adobe would develop an iPhone Flash player themselves and release it through the App Store. There was some debate about the feasibility of this given the restrictions of the iPhone SDK.

Betlem now confirms that an Adobe Flash player for iPhone depends on Apple's approval, but claims that a player could be made available "in a very short time" if they are given the go ahead.

"My team is working on Flash on the iPhone, but it's a closed platform." He noted that Apple makes all the decisions, so in other words, the ball is in Apple's yard at this time.

Article Link

[thevofl]

It's about time!!!!!!!

[guzhogi]

I hope they release it. A lot of websites use Flash, especially Youtube

[dirkdirk80]

this would be freaking awesome!!!

[yrsonicdeath]

Wow, this would be great. It would mean I could finally stream from NPR.org!

[ThinkBrilliant]

Not going to happen. Sorry to rain on the parade.

It's just speculation.

[Small White Car]

Let me be clear that I DO NOT want flash within the Safari browser. Too many problems will come from it in terms of download times, battery life, and program stability when you just want to browse the web. Apple is right to keep flash out of MobileSafari.

That said, I really DO hope that Apple allows a flash application that works the same as the YouTube application. It would be its own program, and when you click a flash video in safari it takes you to the Flash program if you have it.

I can get behind that plan.

[arn]

ya, I think the chance of Apple saying it's ok is pretty small.

arn

[Yvan256]

Originally Posted by guzhogi

I hope they release it. A lot of websites use Flash, especially Youtube

The iPhone/iPod touch has a YouTube application.

Originally Posted by Small White Car

Let me be clear that I DO NOT want flash within the Safari browser. [...] It would be its own program, and when you click a flash video in safari it takes you to the Flash program if you have it. I can get behind that plan.

I also don't want to see Flash integrated into Safari for my iPod touch. I also don't see Apple adding it to Safari either, which seriously limits Adobe's plan, even as an external program (Safari would still need to be modified to open up Adobe's Flash player when a user clicks on the "Flash zone" in Safari).

Also, if more people could serve HTML5 video for Safari (both desktop and iPhone/iPod touch) and a regular video-in-a-Flash-player for all the other browsers, I'm sure a lot less people would be asking for Flash support.

[Plymouthbreezer]

I agree that a dedicated Flash application would be more advantageous than building in the support to Safari...

[decimortis]

Originally Posted by Small White Car

Let me be clear that I DO NOT want flash within the Safari browser. Too many problems will come from it in terms of download times, battery life, and program stability when you just want to browse the web. Apple is right to keep flash out of MobileSafari.

They solve that easily with a toggle switch to turn Flash on/off at will.
I'm just tired of visiting sites and seeing the damn little Lego block staring at me.

I do see your point though, this is not a disagreement.

[ebow]

Originally Posted by Small White Car

Let me be clear that I DO NOT want flash within the Safari browser. Too many problems will come from it in terms of download times, battery life, and program stability when you just want to browse the web. Apple is right to keep flash out of MobileSafari.

That said, I really DO hope that Apple allows a flash application that works the same as the YouTube application. It would be its own program, and when you click a flash video in safari it takes you to the Flash program if you have it.

I can get behind that plan.

I would be very happy with that. Then I could watch full episodes of, e.g., The Daily Show, from comedycentral.com and not have to purchase them from iTunes. But I wouldn't get inundated with flash ads on sites.

[DaveTheGrey]

It's not that I'm missing flash on the iphone but I can understand that many people do.

[guzhogi]

Originally Posted by Yvan256

The iPhone/iPod touch has a YouTube application.

True, but it doesn't have all of YouTube's content

[Kilamite]

They should.

Give users the option to enable and disable Flash for the sake of the battery life. Maybe Apple will be able to re-release that banned advert in the UK if they will support Flash.

Java is next on the list then.

[gnasher729]

People here on MacRumors can be for or against Flash on the iPhone as much as they want, but it is Apple who decides this. And I don't think it is in Apple's best interest to have Flash on the iPhone. So Apple will politely decline Adobe's friendly offer.

[BergerFan]

Originally Posted by Small White Car

...I really DO hope that Apple allows a flash application that works the same as the YouTube application. It would be its own program, and when you click a flash video in safari it takes you to the Flash program if you have it.

I can get behind that plan.

That's exactly how I'd like to see it and I suspect, the only way Apple ever would consider implementing it. But wouldn't it need Apple to add the plugin code to Safari first(even for just a video player), so that Safari links would work?

[poorbusker]

the only thing that apple will do that "compromises" their original idea of the iphone is they will eventually put a keyboard on it. Because apple knows that it doesn't matter how good their virtual keyboard is...business people will not seriously look at the iphone until there is a physical keyboard attached to the phone.

[gmeddles]

I don't see this getting in easily. I'd love for somebody the size of Adobe to play hardball with Apple to get the platform opened up a bit.

[fastbite]

Originally Posted by Small White Car

Let me be clear that I DO NOT want flash within the Safari browser. Too many problems will come from it in terms of download times, battery life, and program stability when you just want to browse the web. Apple is right to keep flash out of MobileSafari.

That said, I really DO hope that Apple allows a flash application that works the same as the YouTube application. It would be its own program, and when you click a flash video in safari it takes you to the Flash program if you have it.

I can get behind that plan.

I'm with you.

[Niiro13]

Originally Posted by decimortis

They solve that easily with a toggle switch to turn Flash on/off at will.
I'm just tired of visiting sites and seeing the damn little Lego block staring at me.

I do see your point though, this is not a disagreement.

Originally Posted by Small White Car

Let me be clear that I DO NOT want flash within the Safari browser. Too many problems will come from it in terms of download times, battery life, and program stability when you just want to browse the web. Apple is right to keep flash out of MobileSafari.

That said, I really DO hope that Apple allows a flash application that works the same as the YouTube application. It would be its own program, and when you click a flash video in safari it takes you to the Flash program if you have it.

I can get behind that plan.

The problem is that if it's up to Apple, then the Flash doesn't need to be a separate application. YouTube is separate even though you can play YouTube videos in Safari, because you can use it separately. Flash, you can't.

My guess is that it's gonna be just like YouTube in Safari, where it's a still screenshot of the Flash. Tap that, and the Flash player comes up like YouTube does. No need to exit Safari and no performance issues.

[3G4N]

How would they know, for sure, in advance, that the flash player wouldn't run well? Sure they could calculate, but Adobe can optimize. "One experiment is worth a thousand guesses."

I too am tired of seeing the blue-lego icon.

Why is it so unlikely? How is it contrary to Apple's view/strategy/interests of the iPhone?

[Small White Car]

Originally Posted by BergerFan

But wouldn't it need Apple to add the plugin code to Safari first(even for just a video player), so that Safari links would work?

Yep. This makes my wish more of a dream than anything, but hey, I can dream, right?

Originally Posted by decimortis

They solve that easily with a toggle switch to turn Flash on/off at will.

The reason I don't like this switch idea is that I'd constantly be turning it off so I don't have to download animated banner ads and then turning it on for what I do want to see. The switch would be used constantly, which would be annoying.

The "click on what you want to see" method avoids that.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by Small White Car

Let me be clear that I DO NOT want flash within the Safari browser. Too many problems will come from it in terms of download times, battery life, and program stability when you just want to browse the web. Apple is right to keep flash out of MobileSafari.

Logic and rational thought have no business on these forums.

That said, I really DO hope that Apple allows a flash application that works the same as the YouTube application. It would be its own program, and when you click a flash video in safari it takes you to the Flash program if you have it.

Many people would be remiss by this as they would then complain that they want embedded Flash. There is no reason, that i can see according to the SDK, that Adobe using the built-in WebKit, Google, MS and/or Mozilla can't make a standalone browser app that has Flash,Java and/or Silverlight built into the browser app. The SDK says that no plug-ins are allowed, but if you include it within the app itself then it is part of the browser, it gets launched when the browser launches, and quits when the browser closes.

It should be noted that Adobes +18 months work on Flash for the iPhone, the crappy versions of flash for cellphones and MIDs, the resource eating Flash for Mac OS X and the very noticeable delay in page rendering all point to Flash not being included as Adobe's fault. If Mac OS X still can't get a decent version of Flash why should we expect that the iPhone will?

[Hooka]

I love how everyone gets so excited for something that should have been released with the original iPhone....