Flash Devices
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Adobe Flash Player Coming to iPhone – the Facts
Flash Player Coming to iPhone
As many of you are aware, yesterday we gave our 2008 Q1 investor relations call and during the Q&A session a question was asked to our CEO Shantanu Narayen about Flash and the iPhone.

The conference call has now been posted in its entirety on the Adobe investor relations site:

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/08q1analyst/earnings_confcall.html

Shantanu’s comments were in response to a question at about 7:04 in slide 20 (the Q&A portion of the call). Here's the transcript:

"Well, you know, we really believe that Flash is synonymous with the Internet and frankly anybody who wants to browse the Web and experience the Web in all its glory really needs Flash support. I mean, we were very excited about the announcement from Windows mobile adoption of Flash on their devices and the fact that we've shipped a half billion devices now, non-PC devices -- so we're also committed to bringing the Flash experience to the iPhone and we'll work with Apple. We've evaluated the SDK we can now start to develop the Flash Player ourselves. And, we think it benefits our joint customers so we want to work with Apple to bring that capability to the device."

Given the lively discussion around this statement over the past day there have been a lot of assumptions made that are not true and I thought I’d share some facts. Here’s the real info that you should be aware of about Flash on the iPhone:

1. We've played around with the iPhone SDK since it was introduced and think we can now begin development on delivering Flash Player on the iPhone.

2. More work needs to be done with Apple however, as the SDK and the license associated with it doesn't enable us to bring the full Flash experience on the iPhone's Safari web brower.

3. We know lots of iPhone users are wanting Flash. Adobe's goal is to make Flash as ubiquitous as possible, so that means delivering Flash to as many platforms as we can. Much to everyone's surprise we announced on Monday that Flash was coming to the Windows Mobile Platform. So if we can do it with Microsoft, we're certainly hoping that it's not that complex for Flash to make it to the iPhone.

This is what I can say today and I’m sure you have questions around what version of Flash, when it will be available, how consumers will get it, etc… We don’t have answers for these or other questions but be assured that once we do we’ll share more details. As always post any comments and I’ll answer.

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Bill, here're my thoughts/suggestions:

Suggestions -
1) It should be directly integrated into the Safari to where you can control it as on/off in the settings (just like you can with JS).

2) This should be delivered with a 2.0.1 (or whatever number) release of the iPhone/Pod software.

Thoughts -
1) It should be the absolute latest FP...not FL 3. The device is powerful enough to handle it. Obviously sites may sputter on them a bit but that is a site issue vs a player issue (like visiting 2Advanced.com on a Pentium II; hehe).

2) If it is FL 3, it should be a different version with capabilities of hooking into the iPhone SDK. This could be done through an AS library or natively in the player (I vote for the latter).

Either way...rock on! I'm sure it'll be sweet whenever you guys figure it out.

By Blogger John C. Bland II , at Wed Mar 19, 03:20:00 PM PDT  

Bill, thanks for putting all the facts down.

--

John's Suggestions comments:

1. Good thought (if a browser based scenario actually happens, that is).

I would imagine that there would be an option to toggle a proposed browser based Flash from settings menu as well (and by default have it set to OFF, just like the PSP ... at least that's what I think Apple would want if this ever got anywhere).

2. Optimistic.

John's Thoughts comments:

#1 See below ... but given that my N810 runs FP9, this is likely feasible, especially if you take into consideration that Apple may come out with a 2nd gen iPhone sometime this year (with perhaps, even better hardware?).

Perhaps then performance would satisfy Jobs with Flash on a much beefier iPhone?!

#2, multiple versions = fragmentation ...

I am thinking that a custom Flash 9 implementation is likely, but that is just my *guess* ...

Better to keep Flash Lite unfrag'ed (as humanly possible & where possible) ...

By Anonymous Scott Janousek , at Wed Mar 19, 06:15:00 PM PDT  

I'd be happy even if we just got a standalone type of player...

By Anonymous Hayden Porter , at Thu Mar 20, 06:58:00 AM PDT  

Being a Flash developer and an iPhone enthusiast, I see you biggest hurdle in bringing a full blown implementation of Flash as the conflicting world of the mouse and Multi-Touch.

By Blogger Erik Madsen , at Thu Mar 20, 10:46:00 AM PDT  

In the conference call, Shantanu also mentioned that Flast Cast was going to be launching on Verizon later this year. Any more details or clarification would be appreciated!

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Thu Mar 20, 11:19:00 AM PDT  

If Safari runs on the iPhone...
If Safari is built on Webkit...
If Webkit is used by Adobe Air ...
We are not far

By Anonymous funkyboy , at Fri Mar 21, 02:39:00 PM PDT  

"The full Flash experience?" That's 300K of rich internet advertising per page, right? On EDGE no less.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Fri Mar 21, 03:49:00 PM PDT  

I just don't understand why iphone did not include flash from the outset. Its a no-brainer, Apple!
As a web developer and new iphone user we want to see our content on the iphone. We tried encoding the video in .m4p - iphone's native video type - discovered that the files are more that 2x the size of the equivalent flash .flv files. Considering the slow speed of the EDGE network this is just nuts. Lets stay with a format (Flash) that works well - stop playing politics - and give the users what they want.

By Anonymous Steve , at Sun Mar 30, 03:55:00 AM PDT  

The slow speed of the edge network doesn't really matter to me...I always use the wifi when browsing using the iPhone anyway. Jobs has stated the goal of the iPhone to be "having the Internet in your pocket" .....we all know it just ain't the 'real' net if you're not flash enabled!!!

By Blogger Eric , at Tue Apr 01, 08:49:00 PM PDT  

You have lost the video battle. Stop dragging your heals and enable the flash player already

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Thu May 08, 10:10:00 AM PDT  

Please make this happen, we badly need a shockwave flassh player 2access the Internet !! p.s. Would u gmail me @sbiltme@gmail.com as soon as its available. Thank U David

By Anonymous sbiltme , at Sun Jun 08, 01:12:00 PM PDT  

I agree, we need a Flash Player for iphones and iPod touch. Please notify me via; mrmusic777@gmail.com. Thank you.

By Blogger Mr. Music777 , at Wed Jul 09, 06:42:00 AM PDT  

THE SDK COME OUT ONE YEAR AGO WHY DO YOU NOT MAKE THE FLASH PLAYER FOR IPHONE ONE YEAR AGO.

By Blogger angel , at Sat Jul 19, 09:31:00 PM PDT  

Now iPhone 3G is out and still only uses a 412mhz processor which is slower than most high-end windows mobile devices, does this give us any better idea of what version of flash we can expect on iPhone? Also with the Safari browser crashing so easily even without complex flash elements is an integrated solution still being considered?

By Anonymous David Long , at Sat Jul 26, 04:30:00 PM PDT  

What I want to know is when??
when can I get flashplayer for my iPod???

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Tue Jul 29, 01:10:00 AM PDT  

C'mon, please tell us WHEN!

I haven't been teased this much since the prom.

(And believe me that was a looooong time ago!)

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Wed Jul 30, 01:34:00 PM PDT  

How exactly will dbl clicks, drags, etc go with it?

By Anonymous Jack , at Thu Jul 31, 10:28:00 PM PDT  

AFAIK, Apple bans any software containing a non-Apple Virtual Machine from being installed on the iPhone. Flash with its embedded ActionScript VM would violate the license. As ever so often, it seems not to be a technical problem, but an artifical human (a.k.a. legal) problem...sigh.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sat Aug 02, 01:26:00 AM PDT  

yes im agree about the flash player in the iphone...
if tha can happen the iphone gonna be the best plz do it ... if ya know some plz tell me here joselo0231@aim.com thanks

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Fri Aug 15, 07:00:00 PM PDT  

My question is how will [I] be notified when Flash is available for iPhone 3G? Or do you think it will be an automatic download?
Thank you, JN (iPhone neewwwbie)

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sat Aug 16, 02:09:00 AM PDT  

As a Flash Artist myself I'd personally like to see Flash Player as a seperate aplication...

Not Flash Lite, but the full version which enables AS3 and other high frame per second functions.

-Samus

http://fusion-revolution.com

By Anonymous Sam Green , at Mon Aug 18, 08:00:00 AM PDT  

Yet another reason why one should not develop sites in Flash, this blog entry is 5 months old and is still the latest official word with regards to Flash on iPhone. Any site with flash should have a non-flash version available, since flash is not as ubiquitous as Adobe would want us to believe.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Aug 18, 12:47:00 PM PDT  

I just got my new G3 and i am very diapointed that there's no Flash on it. This is really the last app. there should be missing. Same with the webradio on Safari. I know Itunes normaly support Shoutcast. And i think together with flash, Iphone should support streams. I hope they fix it fast or i'll maybe sell my Iphone.

By Anonymous Ray from Amsterdam , at Fri Aug 22, 03:02:00 AM PDT  

if flash is one day out for iPhone, will we have to get it from the apple apps site or will apple let us get it from the Adobe Flash download site?

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sat Aug 23, 04:21:00 AM PDT  

Isnt it about time. This should have came with iphone when iphone was available. FLASH PLAYER. Bring the app.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Wed Aug 27, 01:26:00 AM PDT  

Some words to all the people that blame adobe for the current situation:
If you could READ, you would understand that Adobe is working on bringing flash to the iPhone OS.

APPLE still doesn't want it because they have their own formats, own styles and own technology, which they want to stay exclusive.

So stop blaming Adobe for this!
Btw, I can't wait to develop flash/flex apps for my iPod touch, the iPhone SDK just sucks ;) :b

By Anonymous John , at Thu Aug 28, 10:50:00 PM PDT  

can you please tell us because I want to use my iPod with flash for various reasons and I can't so please tell us

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sat Sep 06, 10:36:00 PM PDT  

The iPod touch desperatly needs a flash player, so that people can watch their favorite clips from sites other than YouTube. An example of this would be video Google or even cartoonetwork.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Tue Sep 09, 09:01:00 PM PDT  

iPhone needs flash fast I can't believe it's not on here it's quite a let down it's like haveing the world as your play ground but only able to use the yard come on apple pull your finger out

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Wed Sep 10, 05:38:00 PM PDT  

urgent flash player for iphone!!

slds

By Blogger Willy Henostroza , at Thu Sep 11, 07:26:00 PM PDT  

We need Flash player for the iPhone ASAP

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Tue Sep 16, 01:33:00 PM PDT  

por favor solo digan una fecha aproccimada para que salga adobe para el iphone

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Sep 22, 04:35:00 PM PDT  

I think they should come out with a flash player for ipod touch we ipod touch users would really like it because I need it for. Work so please consider it!!!!

By Blogger Adam , at Thu Sep 25, 03:32:00 AM PDT  

it is a shame. I bought two itouch devices. One for wife and myself. Looks like it is a rip off without having flash player. Still have time to return them - thank God. Apple is making a big mistake here

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sat Sep 27, 10:59:00 AM PDT  

I went to a conference last week, and spoke to Adobe representatives there about this. They told me (unofficially) that they have the Flash Player working under iPhone emulation, and the performance is pretty good. I don't think there's too much difficulty with replicating mouse actions using the fingers (or approximating, anyway). Apparently this is all about Apple not wanting to open up and play with the rest of the community, not about technical limitations at all.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sun Sep 28, 10:33:00 PM PDT  

Just bought iphone 3g and love it except the part about NO FLASH!!! Can't believe it. My old pda with windows 2003 ce had more video support. Come on Apple and get it done. I'm paying 100.00 a month for service so make it HAPPEN!

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sun Oct 12, 01:05:00 AM PDT  

I just got an IPod Touch 2nd generation. I knew before I got it that content made with Adobe Flash can not be displayed in Safari or in a stand alone player. The iPod Touch is an impressive device lacking the access to one of the most important dimensions of the internet: Interactive Flash Content. It should be a priority for Apple and Adobe to promptly implement a version of the Flash player on this platform.
As a web developer and user I believe it is imperative for the continuous success of this platform to have access to Flash content on the web and as stand alone. Thank you.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Oct 20, 12:40:00 PM PDT  

no flash player!?, come on Apple! i paid good money for my 2nd gen ipod touch and the reason for not being able to use flash player is because you guys dont want to cooperate with adobe. that is so childish!if you guys dont hurry i might just return it and get a refund. i still have 75 days to do so. SO PLEASE HURRY!!!!

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Tue Oct 21, 10:57:00 AM PDT  

don't know much of these things, but does antitrust apply here? I mean this situation fed me up! Maybe apple is developing something similar to flash and has it under wraps. Like some glorious application $$$?

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Tue Oct 21, 09:40:00 PM PDT  

Hopefully Adobe will come up with a flash player soon, before websites all decide to create iPhone friendly versions of their content without Adobe's products.

By Anonymous Carl Frederick , at Thu Oct 23, 04:22:00 PM PDT  

come on people! the iphone is out, the ipod touch is out, the iphone 3g is out, and yet no flash! i was very excited when i got my iphone but once i figured out there was no flash i was very sad :( they're probably blocking us from getting free games off the internet. they want us to get games ONLY from the itunes app store. money thieves!!!

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Nov 03, 08:38:00 AM PST  

This is BS... Why cant we use the effin Flash Player on our iPods?

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sat Nov 08, 01:31:00 PM PST  

Amazing that something as important as a flash player for iphone and adobe doesn't think it is important enough to have any current news since Mar 2008. That is pretty lame!

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Nov 10, 02:21:00 PM PST  

personally I will be doing apple the worst harm possible...I will not be investing in their next iPhone...my next phone will likely be windows based like my last one. Sorry apple but if I had even been told I couldn't have flash on this new 3g iPhone and had thought to check it out first I doubt if I would have bought it. So go ahead and bandy about but when u don't please ur customers we DO vote with our feet and simply go elsewhere next time...

By Blogger Neil , at Thu Nov 13, 03:19:00 AM PST  

NO FLASH on my 2nd gen. itouch! I should have listened to my anti-apple friends who wouldn't think about purchasing from a monopolizing company like Apple. I guess shame on me. To think I almost bought a mac!

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Thu Nov 13, 08:20:00 PM PST  

nececito saber komo conseguir esta informacion en espanol por favor jry@yahoo.com para iphone 3g flash player i need information for iphone3g in spanish plese

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sat Nov 29, 08:23:00 AM PST  

I love the multiple posts by the same guy with the same grammatical style.

Flash is not going to happen on the iPhone and personally I couldn't be happier as I don't miss the crapware included on every web page.

If you want Flash go get another phone with the Falsh player

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sun Nov 30, 11:35:00 PM PST  

Let me guess, your either an employee of Apple or your still stuck with dialup for Internet access. Apple needs to allow for Flash to work with the iPhone. They talk about being advanced but have shown they are once again 2nd to Microsoft.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sun Dec 14, 04:51:00 PM PST  

Apple, what's the real reason for no flash player on the iPhone? Is it the profit you make by not allowing it? Is it a technical issue? I have yet to see a response directly from Apple that addresses these direct questions. Your customers deserve an answer. Personally, I don't play or buy games or music off of iTunes. I just want to watch full episodes of tv shows on my iPhone "free" as I do on my laptop. I can visit ABC, CBS, NBC, Fancast, & other websites and watch tv shows via flash player on my laptop for free. Why not on my iPhone? majb

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Fri Dec 19, 07:44:00 PM PST  

Venga, ya digan cuando tendremos el flash player para el iphone en linea. ojala que Apple acepte la oferta, sino estarian muy tontos, porque sin flash player el internet apesta.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Wed Dec 24, 11:53:00 AM PST  

when will it be released because on my favourite website you need it. It's really annoying. Also will it be available to download or will you have to buy a new one to get it on there? Finally will you email me at p.wyer@hotmail.co.uk when it's available? Thanks!

By Blogger p.wyer , at Fri Dec 26, 06:59:00 AM PST  

when is this going to come out?

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sun Dec 28, 08:57:00 AM PST  

Got a 2nd generation touch for Christmas and have just discovered I can't install Flash. Very disappointed. It should be my choice to install it or not.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Wed Dec 31, 06:40:00 PM PST  

This is b.so.,adobe has developed one, and it's been over a friggin year and they still can't get past legal issues? Gfu!! I mean get over yourselves,please....

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sat Jan 03, 10:03:00 PM PST  

Hi this is Vincent from Singapore . iPhone indeed is a good phone especially the graphics and the quality of photos captured by it . Apple indeed has keep up to their splendour in producing good graphics like their Mac desktops & notebooks . However there's one significant lacking component is that there's no flash for web viewing . I strongly support those whom have share their frustrations, pleadings as well as their disappointment that this device do not possess . It is indeed a big disappointment to discover such a marvellous device cannot viewed movie that has adobe flash viewer installed.Please do not let your loyal Iphone users to abandons the goodness thought of using this but rather let them feel no regret instead .

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Thu Jan 08, 10:59:00 PM PST  

Hey I hope you all can do this I believe in you all at apple and at adobe I got in to apple after my old mp3 player started to crash and since I got my I touch I haven't had one error exept ones for a flash player but I don't care I believe in you guys and I can't wait for it to come out please make it free I know the economy is in a mess and you are not doing so well but everyone else is doing worse and you never raise prices at a time like this if I was you make it free for now then after this mess is over make the updades cost.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Fri Jan 09, 09:08:00 PM PST  

PLEASE MAKE IT SO FLASH WORKS ON IPHONE !!! This is crazy to not be able to view flash...it makes safari worthless on many sites. really dissapointing.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sat Jan 17, 10:17:00 AM PST  

Adobe are losing the battle for high user video on demand. You tube are converting media to quick time by the thousands a day.
If Adobe want to keep ahead of the game, you need to stream video live on the iphone(like sky news etc)
This needs to be like Now!! or you will be beat. Web developers will move to other platforms to keep their punters visiting.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Wed Jan 21, 01:39:00 PM PST  

Guys, every iPhone user needs adobe whether that be flash player or shock wave etc.. Therefore please make it soon and free.. You will be everyone new best friend ; )

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sat Jan 24, 01:41:00 AM PST  

I WANT/NEED FLASH!!!! PLEASE! -JESSICA

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Mon Jan 26, 08:32:00 AM PST  

Please contact me when FLASH 4 iPhone/itouch is available. I know you'd guys are gonna not disappoint!!
levandome@me.com

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Wed Jan 28, 03:32:00 AM PST  

Let's we support Apple and Adobe for this great project. We hope the flash player could be installed to our iPod touch soon.

GBU All

Goonie

By Anonymous Apple Repo , at Sat Jan 31, 10:32:00 PM PST  

Hulu and the iPhone. Please. That way my life can be even more complete thanks to my iPhone.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sun Feb 01, 10:02:00 PM PST  

Want FLASH now!!!!!!!!!!! Tired of waiting.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Thu Feb 26, 07:27:00 PM PST  

Hello I have the itouch and I want to watch hulu. Is flashplayer available yet???? HURRY!!!!!!! Thanks!!

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Fri Feb 27, 09:17:00 AM PST  

Portable is what iPhone does. Video is what flash does . Why do the makers of the iphone have to make things so difficult. What are they waiting for? Does adobe have to pay apple for the privilage of having the Internet's best video viewer. Not just video, but many web applications are not at our finger tips because of this inconvience.

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sat Feb 28, 12:02:00 PM PST  

Hi does anyone have any answers yet about when we can get flash on the iphone because if not I'm selling mine I can't even do something simple like go on some of the facebook apps without it how sad is that .....

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sun Mar 01, 04:58:00 PM PST  

While Ajax gain terrain in mobile devices, Flash lost oportunities to demonstrate a real value, I use Flex and the use of mobile devices has grouth fast.

By Anonymous Jorge Guiñez R. , at Tue Mar 03, 05:17:00 AM PST  

Hello friends, i cann't download flash player on my iphone 3g, please help me..

Thanks

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sat Mar 07, 02:25:00 PM PST  

I agree, Flash should be on all cell phones with internet capability. As a Flash developer, it will only open up more doors.

The iPhone SDK itself is great. Objective-C is powerful and the API itself is really ahead of ActionScript as far as the drawing API goes. The framework however can be disappointing, especially if you've worked with Flex and other frameworks.

By Blogger Ryan Sadwick , at Sat Mar 28, 06:47:00 AM PDT  

It's stupid that iphone 3g dose not have flash ...it's just ridiculous

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Sun Mar 29, 01:54:00 PM PDT  

I would really like to be contacted when a flash player comes out for IPhone. My email is Everyvoicemattersproductions@yahoo.com Thank you

By Blogger MimiTatt , at Thu Apr 09, 08:22:00 PM PDT  

I am very excited to hear that Adobe Flash for the iPhone may soon be available. A lot of video content posted on the web currently can't be viewed with an iPhone 3G. That is just untenable, and needs to be resolved ASAP. Thanks!!!

By Anonymous Anonymous , at Fri Apr 10, 02:29:00 PM PDT  

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