This is probably the most reasonable commentary on the topic of Adobe Flash Player’s absence from Apple’s iPhone. Since the day the iPhone was announced I have fielded questions on this topic in almost every single presentation that I have given. No exaggeration. 

I still can’t provide any “insider information” even though I’m no longer with the company (and I don’t really have any anyways – seriously). But the reasoning that Wired’s Brian X. Chen provides is exactly what I would suggest in conversation.

[...] Allowing Flash — which is a development platform of its own — would just be too dangerous for Apple, a company that enjoys exerting total dominance over its hardware and the software that runs on it. Flash has evolved from being a mere animation player into a multimedia platform capable of running applications of its own. That means Flash would open a new door for application developers to get their software onto the iPhone: Just code them in Flash and put them on a web page. In so doing, Flash would divert business from the App Store, as well as enable publishers to distribute music, videos and movies that could compete with the iTunes Store.

I first heard this idea while at Microsoft’s MIX ‘08 conference in Las Vegas earlier this year. Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer was asked (probably in jest) whether the iPhone would ever support Silverlight. Balmer snickered and then proceeded to explain that Apple’s (then recent) announcement of the iPhone SDK and marketplace was a signal that they intend to completely control the marketplace and developer platform for iPhone apps. If I recall correctly, he said something to the effect of, “Apple isn’t interested in open development for the iPhone.” I’m sure Apple would counter that Safari-based apps count as “open development” but, well, you make the call on that one.

In my opinion, Apple’s model for iPhone app development is pretty smart. Before the iPhone the number of Cocoa/Objective-C developers was probably pretty small. I’d bet they’ve seen a HUGE increase in registered developers since the release of the SDK (I’m one of them, and I know my friend Mesh is as well). And I think Apple is one of the only tech companies that could pull this off. But I don’t know if they can sustain their tight grip on iPhone development for long.

Now, that said, I still think there’s a chance that Flash will make it’s way onto the iPhone. It would most likely be as a Safari plugin so users could actually browse “the real Internet” as Apple likes to say in their ads. In his recent keynote at Adobe’s MAX user conference in San Francisco, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch had much to say about Flash on mobile devices, including bringing Google Android creator Andy Rubin up on stage to talk about Flash running on Google’s new device OS. I think market pressures – more than anything – will force Apple to embrace Flash at some point.

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.

I’ve been getting a LOT of emails from Flash users asking me if I can confirm whether Apple’s new drool-worthy iPhone will be able to run Flash content. The answer? I can neither confirm nor deny this. It’s their product and it wouldn’t be my place. You have to ask Apple.

I will say that I attended Jobs’ keynote at Macworld Expo last week and this sexy little device is really, really cool. If anyone could change the entire consumer electronics industry with a single product release (Remember that little iPod gadget? I recall a lot of people saying when they announced it, “my MP3 player does all of that already. This isn’t innovative…” Heh. Yeah, right…), it’s Apple. And this thing just might do that.

But the Flash developer community wants to know whether they will be able to deliver rich experiences to this pocket-sized wonder. What are others saying?

Macrumors reader c-Row reports that German magazine MacWelt interviewed one of Apple’s executives in Europe who allegedly confirmed support for Flash in the iPhone’s Safari browser.

New York Times columnist David Pogue has posted an FAQ where he addresses Flash support directly by quoting an interview with Apple CEO Steve Jobs:

“Will the browser offer Flash and Java?”
In my previous blog post, I said “No” (you’ll see why in a moment). But several of you have pointed out an interview published in the German magazine MacWelt, in which the browser IS said to offer Flash and Java.

So I’ve asked John Markoff, who audio-recorded our interview with Steve Jobs, to play back the relevant exchange for me. Here it is:

—
Markoff: “What about all those plugins that live within Safari now, like Flash or like Java or like JavaScript?”

Jobs: “Well, JavaScript’s built into the Phone. Sure.”

Markoff: “And what are you thinking about Flash and Java?”

Jobs: “Java’s not worth building in. Nobody uses Java anymore. It’s this big heavyweight ball and chain.”

Markoff: “Flash?”

Jobs: “Well, you might see that.”

Markoff: “What about YouTube –”

Jobs: “Yeah, YouTube – of course. But you don’t need to have Flash to show YouTube. All you need to do is deal with YouTube. And plus, we could get ‘em to up their video resolution at the same time, by using h.264 instead of the old codec.”

Sidenote: Hehe. You’ve gotta love a CEO who takes every opportunity to push their company’s products. I’m sure Apple would love to see companies like YouTube support Quicktime and h.264. Whether that would allow YouTube to “up their video resolution” is a dig at h.263, the first video codec supported by both Flash and Quicktime. It’s worth pointing out that I’ve seen many examples of video using Flash Player’s On2 VP6 codec looking better than h.264. As our engineers put it – it’s all about the encoding. If you have a good encoder and you really know what you’re doing, you can make huge improvements to the quality of your video. However, when encoding is server-based and fully automated, you’ll end up with less perfection. Back to the iPhone…

I can comment on whether some of the speculation about Flash Player running on the highly-anticipated iPhone makes sense to me or not.

First of all, Danny Patterson suggests that it may automatically support the full Flash Player 9 browser plugin because the iPhone’s technical specifications list that it runs “OS X”. However, Slashdot reports that Apple may be using “OS X” a bit liberally. Slashdot also claim the device runs a Samsung-provided ARM processor, which would basically mean that any application that can run on your OSX-based Mac won’t necessarily automatically run on your iPhone. Now, that doesn’t mean Flash Player wouldn’t run on the iPhone – it just means that it wouldn’t necessarily work automatically.

Personally, I’d love to see Flash supported on the iPhone. And I’m sure Apple will be able to comment on this over time. Their heads are probably spinning after such a huge announcement and a level of press coverage that I can’t recall ever witnessing for any consumer electronics product release. Plus, it looks like it will be very easy for them to update software on the iPhone via iTunes so I’m sure they’ll be releasing software and applications incrementally over time. So even if Apple didn’t ship with Flash Player initially (and again – I’m neither confirming nor denying here – it’s their product), that doesn’t mean they couldn’t add it post-ship very quickly and easily. I’m sure requests from the massive Flash developer community could help accelerate that. :)

Korean wireless carrier SK Telecom began shipping the SCH-S260 mobile phone yesterday. The new phone is the first in the Samsung line to feature the Macromedia Flash Lite Player. This follows Macromedia’s recent announcement of a strategic relationship with Samsung that will result in Macromedia Flash-powered Samsung phones throughout the world. The technology is being used to power the user interface for the phone – something that I find fascinating.

I can’t wait until the day that Flash developers can create their own UI skins for their phones using the Flash authoring tool.

For more information on Flash for Mobile, visit: www.macromedia.com/mobile.

I’m sure Bill Perry has already posted about this (btw – welcome to Macromedia, Bill!) – but I just noticed it. This sounds really cool.

Excerpt:

Dates
Contest Submission: November 1, 2004 to February 1, 2005. Winners will be announced on February 14, 2005.

Description
Here’s your chance to show the rest of the world what you can create using Flash Lite. Every qualifying entry will have a chance to win great prizes and may have an opportunity to be introduced to key operators for distribution of your content or application.

Awards
* The grand prize: 42-inch flat-panel television set .
* Individual category winners: Apple iPod music player.
* All qualifying entries will be highlighted in our Mobile Showcase.
* All entries will receive a Flash Lite T-shirt.

Read more:
http://www.macromedia.com/mobile/special/contest/