Monday, November 17, 2008

Flash coming to an iPhone near you - next year

Today, Adobe and ARM announced that they are collaborating on optimizing Flash player and AIR for the ARM architecture. As an iPhone owner, I am truly excited, because dissections of the iPhone have revealed it to be an ARM powered device. The path is being blazed for Flash to come to the iTune's App Store (hopefully at no cost).

Given Apple's penchant for control and shepherding the user experience on its products, it is likely that the player will be further customized to work well with Safari. One of the aspects that I like the most about my iPhone is that I can use it to find information when I need it. Indeed, there was one time when my attempt to view a restaurant's Web site was stymied by lack of Flash.

In my conversation with Adobe's Anup Murarka, director of technical marketing for mobile and devices, he was somewhat cagey about admitting that Adobe was working with Apple to bring Flash to the iPhone. But they are, and today's announcement is proof positive.

Adobe says that the ARM runtimes will not be released until the second half of next year. I'd expect Apple to be the first out of the gate, but am not holding my breath.

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