Adobe gives up on Flash for iPhone

It looks like Adobe is giving up on its attempts to get Flash onto the Apple iPhone.

Apple changed its iPhone developer T&Cs to effectively forbid Flash on the platform, just days before Adobe was scheduled to release its new Creative Suite 5 software that would allow the creation of iPhone-compatible packaged Flash-based apps. Apple’s distaste for Flash is well-known, but the move was widely interpreted as a deliberate two-finger gesture to Adobe.

Creative Suite 5 CS5 can still be used to export Flash-based applications to iPhone apps, but without any way to get them into the App Store, it’s not much of a feature. Mike Chambers, project manager for Adobe Flash, has finally acknowledged the impasse and wrote on his blog on Tuesday:

“We will still be shipping the ability to target the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5. However, we are not currently planning any additional investments in that feature.”

Chambers goes on to explain how Adobe’s goal with Flash was to:

“…enable cross browser, platform and device development. The cool web game that you build can easily be targeted and deployed to multiple platforms and devices. However, this is the exact opposite of what Apple wants.”

There’s a clear anti-Apple sentiment here, but there is a grain of truth in what Chambers says. Aside from the problems associated with Flash on a smartphone problem (still the subject of endless debate), one thing is clear — Apple wants developers to produce apps that exploit the iPhone’s features.

As Chambers said, Flash does allow one application to be easily developed for multiple platforms but, by its very nature, that application must be developed to work on the least capable of those platforms. In other words, there’s a chance that allowing Flash on the iPhone would open the floodgates for a vast number of apps that, since they can’t rely upon a feature found in one smartphone but not another, would fail to show the smartphone at its best — and that’s something Apple does not want.

Apple usually keeps quiet during such debates, but Chamber’s blog post has prompted an uncharacteristic comment. In response to his comment that:

“ [Apple wants] to tie developers down to their platform, and restrict their options to make it difficult for developers to target other platforms.”

Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller stated that:

“Someone has it backwards — it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary.”

Or, to paraphrase, “In your face, Adobe.”

[via CNET]