Flash still being developed for iPhone

Despite Apple supremo Steve Jobs suggesting that it wasn’t up to the task, Macromedia is pushing on with plans to put Flash on the iPhone.

Jobs’ assertion was a real blow to the Flash team, and to iPhone users who want their browser to deal with one of the web’s most prevalent rich material services, but they haven't given up hope.

"We believe Flash is synonymous with the internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone," chief executive Shantanu Narayen told the Wall Street Journal.

"We have evaluated [the software developer tools] and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves."

Flash and exciting

Using the SDK is certainly a viable route for Flash, especially bearing in mind TechRadar’s story that Microsoft’s Silverlight is being adapted for the iPhone.

Whatever happens, iPhone  and iPod touch users are understandably pleased about the prospect of enhancing the browser experience on their devices. MacFormat’s Christopher Phin told us: "This is exciting news, and if true means that there will be practically nowhere on the web that the iPhone can't go.

"It's not clear at this stage, however, exactly how Adobe - or Sun, which has promised Java - will deliver; the current implementation of the iPhone SDK doesn't seem to have the programming hooks that would allow browser plug-ins and such low-level stuff to be done, and Apple's yet-to-be-launched App Store is slated to be the only distribution mechanism."