Adobe confirms Flash for iPhone

Macworld UK - Adobe Systems Inc. has confirmed it will develop a version of Flash Player for the iPhone.

The news ends months of speculation on the matter. This month, Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs said that Flash Player for mobile devices isn't good enough for the iPhone.

"Proper" Flash "performs too slow to be useful," on the iPhone, Jobs warned. "There's this missing product in the middle. It just doesn't exist," he explained.

Jobs also insisted that Apple's relationship with Adobe remains strong -- and perhaps this claim is borne out by Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen's confirmation of plans to introduce Flash for iPhone on Tuesday.

Speaking during Adobe's quarterly investor conference call, Narayen confirmed that now that Apple has released the iPhone Software Development Kit, Adobe will develop Flash for the iPhone. Like other iPhone applications, this will be made available to users through the App Store in iTunes.

"We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone," Narayen said. "We have evaluated [the software developer tools] and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves."