There has been no secret that Apple and Adobe have been fighting like cats and dogs over the integration of Flash content into Apples devices. Most notably the iPhone and iPad. This week Apple has taken everything a step further by creating a new ruling in the developer agreement. Section 3.3.1 of the iPhone developer agreement now prohibits the use of private or third-party API's. Adobe has been working on Flash Professional CS5 for developers, and has committed to shipping the product but sees no hope for future investments in any product that targets the iPhone. CEO Steve Jobs is defending the move in an email to a developer stating "Intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform."
Adobe's primary goal with CS5 was to enable cross-platform compatibility, but Apple really wants to tie developers down to their platform. Adobe made it very clear that they are working closely with Google to enable flash development on their platform.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen has issued a statement to Fox News that Flash 10.1 will become available for Android, WebOS, and Blackberry. Based on the statement, the application support is expected to surface for these devices in the second half of 2010. Apple still refuses to work with Adobe to bring flash enabled support to any of their devices including the newly released iPad. Narayen touched briefly on Apple's lack of participation mentioning that Apple is holding out on support for their devices not based of technology, but as a business decision that will hurt consumers. He remains confident that consumers will vote for the experience that they prefer with their wallets.
Despite releases last week regarding Adobe working on a solution for the iPhone, experts don't believe that the device will be ready very soon. Adobe has already mentioned that the production of this application has been a challenge. Steve Jobs mentioned that a large amount of internet based videos are not available for the iPhone because the standard flash players just run too slow. Steve also went on to mention that the flash player functions very well on larger devices like laptop computers, but the iPhone is going to need something special to fit the bill.
A Representative from Adobe at the recent Flash on the Beach conference let slip that Adobe's Flash technology would be making an appearance for the iPhone relatively soon.
