iPhones: Where's the Flash?

2008-02-20 12:05

Ben Charny

San Francisco - Apple Inc and longtime partner Adobe Systems Inc are at a flash point over the iPhone.

Since its debut in late June, the iPhone's exalted mobile web browser has been off limits to nearly all videos delivered over the internet. That's because the browser isn't compatible with an Adobe-made media player, known as "Flash Player", which is used to view internet videos.

Adobe's patience appears to be wearing thin. "No one aside from (Apple Chief Executive) Steve Jobs has any idea if or when it's coming," Ryan Stewart, Adobe's chief spokesperson for its internet-based applications, wrote on his blog last week. "Everyone I talk to doesn't know anything."

The iPhone's history is already marked by Apple's demands scaring off would-be Apple partners, including No 2 US cellphone operator Verizon Wireless, jointly owned by Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group PLC, and China Mobile, Asia's biggest telecom. Now it appears the same tactics are straining Apple's relationship with long-time partner Adobe.

The stand-off could be resolved by the end of the month when Apple's due to release iPhone software tools that may include a way to make the iPhone compatible with Flash Player.

That'll certainly cheer investors; any ensuing Adobe/iPhone tie up will erase a lingering concern and certainly lift Apple's beleaguered shares. But failure to end the stalemate raises the volume on the issue, and puts even more strain on the two companies' relationship.

IPhone sales seem to be taking a slight hit as a result of the kerfuffle, though no formal study's ever been made. The lack of Flash Player is though an oft-cited reason why someone wouldn't buy it, according to a number of different Apple online user forums.

'A complete fabrication'

An Apple spokesperson said the company values its longtime relationship with Adobe, but had no additional comment other than to point to a Jobs' comment in July about eventually adding Flash.

An Adobe representative echoed the same sentiments about the partnership but also had no additional comment.

The closest Apple has come to addressing the issue was shortly after the iPhone's release, when Jobs, in a widely-circulated published interview, said Flash Player would ultimately make it to the iPhone.

With both companies keeping mum since then, it's been largely left to outsiders to suggest why the two aren't yet seeing eye to eye.

Andru Edwards, who writes for the popular Gear Live blog, says it's strictly an Apple business decision. He believes criticisms that the Flash Player uses too much processing and battery power are red herrings.

"From what I am hearing, it was a complete fabrication," he wrote in a posting, citing an unidentified source. "Flash has not yet made it to the iPhone solely due to business negotiations."

One source, granted anonymity to speak freely, raises troubling technical issues.

Drifting apart?

The source, interviewed about a week ago, says developers were then having trouble grafting Adobe's media player onto the iPhone.

"There's still lots of bugs," the source said.

Another popular theory is that Apple may be developing its own player, given that Adobe's products for cellphones are essentially the only choice in town.

This isn't the first time the two companies have been seemingly at odds.

Around 2002, Adobe dropped support for Apple's Macintosh computers, and then introduced several other software products that were only compatible with Microsoft software. Then, Apple made some product changes affecting the distribution of Adobe's software products.

With the new batch of tensions over the iPhone, it appears the two may be drifting further apart.

"They really needed each other 10 or 20 years ago. That's clearly less important now," said Jeffrey Tarter, editor of software industry newsletter Softletter.

- Dow Jones