Flash Mobile 19 Mar 2008 12:27 pm
Flash on the iPhone
As you’ve no doubt heard (and heard, and heard, and heard, and heard…), there is some new news about the ever-so-popular subject of Flash support on Apple’s iPhone. However, the reports of Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayan’s comments about Flash support on the iPhone during yesterday’s earnings call were not necessarily complete and accurate (shocking!!!).
Here’s what Shantanu said (as can be confirmed by viewing the recording of the call here):
“Well, you know, we really believe that Flash is synonymous with the Internet and frankly anybody who wants to browse the Web and experience the Web in all its glory really needs Flash support. I mean, we were very excited about the announcement from Windows mobile adoption of Flash on their devices and the fact that we’ve shipped a half billion devices now, non-PC devices — so we’re also committed to bringing the Flash experience to the iPhone and we’ll work with Apple. We’ve evaluated the SDK we can now start to develop the Flash Player ourselves. And,we think it benefits our joint customers so we want to work with Apple to bring that capability to the device.”
And here is Adobe’s follow-up, official statement:
“Adobe has evaluated the iPhone SDK and can now start to develop a way to bring Flash Player to the iPhone. However, to bring the full capabilities of Flash to the iPhone web-browsing experience we do need to work with Apple beyond and above what is available through the SDK and the current license around it. We think Flash availability on the iPhone benefits Apple and Adobe’s millions of joint customers, so we want to work with Apple to bring these capabilities to the device.”
I hope that helps clear things up.
UPDATE: Adobe’s Bill Perry has a more detailed post about this issue
UPDATE 2: I forgot to mention that Microsoft recently announced that they are licensing Flash Lite and Adobe Reader LE for the Windows Mobile OS so all future Windows Mobile devices will automatically be Flash and PDF-enabled.
on 19 Mar 2008 at 1:23 pm 1.jonnymac blog » The real deal with Flash on the iPhone, from Adobe said …
[…] Downey, a Platform Evangelist at Adobe, just posted the entire, correct story of Flash on the iPhone. As mentioned in his post, a lot of people have been blogging about how Flash is coming to the […]
on 19 Mar 2008 at 1:36 pm 2.Mielno said …
Great job - I think about it and write something more next time - bye.
on 19 Mar 2008 at 1:37 pm 3.savvas.malamas » Blog Archive » Shantanu Narayen: We are working on a Flash Player for the iPhone!!! said …
[…] UPDATE:Mike Downey tries to clear this up here. […]
on 19 Mar 2008 at 1:49 pm 4.Tony Fendall said …
Thanks for taking the time to make things clear. I’m still waiting for someone from Adobe to respond to this one though
http://scobleizer.com/2008/03/06/is-steve-jobs-lying-about-flash-not-working-on-iphone/
on 19 Mar 2008 at 2:15 pm 5.Brett said …
So basically, no new news, move along, nothing to see. It’s a shame that the two companies can’t seem to agree on a deal as it hurts consumers most who are stuck with a “not-quite-complete” web.
on 19 Mar 2008 at 2:34 pm 6.adWONDER | powered by eyeWONDER said …
[…] (3.19): Via Mike Downey’s blog and the latest info from Adobe’s CEO, it looks like it may be a little further off than […]
on 19 Mar 2008 at 2:37 pm 7.admin said …
@Tony: the deal is that we can’t comment on another company’s product unless they give us permission to. Anything else wouldn’t be ethical and would make us bad partners. It’s just not our place.
@Brett: I know it’s difficult, but don’t make too many assumptions about what’s really going on. Fact is, companies choose what they release to the public - that is all.
on 19 Mar 2008 at 4:15 pm 8.Brett said …
@Mike - Developers have to make assumptions when there is a lack of transparency about an issue. I understand that Adobe may be in sticky negotiations, or perhaps the whole thing is a smoke & mirrors show and Adobe/Apple are happily working together for a June surprise, but in lieu of concrete information everyone else has to make best guesses in order to plan for future projects.
on 19 Mar 2008 at 4:36 pm 9.admin said …
@Brett: Well, it’s pretty simple. Until one of our two companies announces anything different, there will be no Flash on the iPhone. Period. Everything else is just speculation and commentary that helps no one.
on 19 Mar 2008 at 5:22 pm 10.Brett said …
@Mike - Not sure what your hostile tone is about, other than perhaps venting frustration at the wrong person. Personally, it wasn’t even on my mind until your CEO misspoke yesterday and led everyone to the conclusion that Adobe was forging ahead. As I said in the original message, “Nothing to see here, move along.” I think we’re in agreement on that point.
on 19 Mar 2008 at 5:58 pm 11.Jared Rypka-Hauer said …
I don’t think you were hostile, Mike…
In any case, on a slightly different topic, are there any plans to push the AIR runtime to iPhone?
Seriously, I can’t think of anything cooler than creating apps for the iPhone with AIR and Flex.
J
on 20 Mar 2008 at 7:50 am 12.admin said …
@Brett: I don’t know why you think I’m being “hostile.” I’m being pretty straight-forward here. I also don’t know why you’re drawing a conclusion that our CEO “misspoke.” He was also pretty straight-forward. It was the initial reports from several blogs that mis-quoted our CEO. This post is simplify clarifying what has been said instead of speculating on what’s “really going on.”
@Jared: We intend to release a mobile profile of the AIR runtime within the next year and have had interest from many of the largest mobile device manufacturers.
on 20 Mar 2008 at 11:03 am 13.Brett said …
@Mike - Perhaps “hostile” was the wrong choice of word. More like “condescension.” If your customers wish to speculate on what’s going on behind-the-scenes, that’s their prerogative, and not really your place as a customer liaison to say that it “helps no one.” In any case, not trying to get into an argument with you. Hope Flash on the iPhone can get worked out soon. Peace.
on 20 Mar 2008 at 2:08 pm 14.Joeflash said …
I don’t think Mr. Narayen misled anyone, and Mike’s tone is certainly not hostile. Just cautious. What I read out of what the CEO said was, we’re working on the technical hurdles of getting flash on the iPhone, and we have great hopes that it will eventually be.
How is that misleading anyone? I think Mike’s response was born out everyone hearing what they want to hear, so people can hear what is actually being said. Have a little faith it’ll all get worked out in the end…
on 21 Mar 2008 at 7:12 am 15.Flash Colombia » La novela de Flash y el Apple iPhone said …
[…] La cifra que nos interesa es la de uso de Internet y de video, ya que como lo dijo el CEO de Adobe: Flash es sinónimo de Internet. […]
on 21 Mar 2008 at 7:33 am 16.Phillip Kerman said …
Updated my video–this one contains the actual quotes from Adobe and attempts to “explain” them–depending on what your definition of is is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oHDtXmmEWU
on 22 Mar 2008 at 12:03 am 17.admin said …
@Phillip: LMAO!!!
on 24 Mar 2008 at 7:51 am 18.Nate Chatellier said …
@Phillip: Absolutely hilarious!! Brilliant.
on 14 Apr 2008 at 3:45 am 19.kvadrakov said …
Cool! Now smog watch cartoons. A play in the flesh is not the game?
on 10 Jun 2008 at 6:02 pm 20.mezov said …
Cool!!!
A great job!
on 13 Jun 2008 at 12:01 am 21.Rick Beacham said …
Well, since Iphoney still does not support a general adobe flash plugin or lite version like many other advanced cell phones do, like DOCOMO in Japan, I guess I will not buy the new Iphone. I guess the problem is porting the full adobe flash plugin in to Mac OS X’s cellphone environment. Don’t see why thats sooo hard.(LOL) Can’t see why someone would buy a phone that say’s full support for the web, but lacks flash one of the major ingredients to the web experience. It is said good things come to those that wait. Meaning in this instance Adobe’s plugin will be much better than other plugins on mobile devices(Is there any cellphone that supports full flash?), but if Mac and Adobe decide the consumer will have to “upgrade” charging us a fee for there new “highly optimized” plug-in then I’ll stick with my current cell phone ..
on 13 Jun 2008 at 12:18 am 22.Rick Beacham said …
I think what people really want is a full fledged Flash plugin not a slim-downed version like the ones you see on current mobile devices. “WE” want the full web experience on our mobile device, never mind most of the USA is still not even 3G(LOL).
Who cares what a CEO said if you hear it straight from the developers than take their word for it. CEO ’s promise things say things to hype consumers up and guess what those things might not work as planned its all just a gimmick.
on 20 Jul 2008 at 8:24 am 23.Max said …
Look. You guys at Adobe (actually, MM) squandered your mobile Flash initiative with bad management and by narrowing your view to Japan.
The fact is, Flash Lite does not have the features for a full browser experience and the desktop version of Flash is far too unweildly to operate without error on the iPhone.
You don’t have a monopoly on multi media experiences; nor should you. There’s a paradigm shift and with it, the long needed dismantling of Flash’s choke-hold on Web-based multimedia.
on 02 Aug 2008 at 2:02 pm 24.scouppoge said …
Thanks !