Adobe squeezes Flash onto iPhone but not in browser

So it looks like Adobe Flash will be coming to the Apple iPhone after all, but as a native application rather than the in-browser player.

At Adobe Max, the company’s worldwide developer conference, taking place in Los Angeles this week, the firm gave a sneak preview of how developers can use Flash Professional CS5 to export applications for the iPhone.

Note that this is not Flash Player, and does not mean that website designers can incorporate Flash into their sites for display in the iPhone’s Safari browser. Instead, developers can create standalone applications built in Flash that can be downloaded from the App Store.

“The Apple iPhone SDK license terms do not allow runtime interpreted code, so Adobe is not able to deliver Flash Player in Safari on the iPhone without support from Apple. Applications for the iPhone built with Adobe Flash Professional CS5 do not include any runtime interpreted code,” the company said.

A public beta of Flash Professional CS5 is expected to be available later this year but Adobe showcased a series of iPhone applications built using a beta version of Flash Professional CS5 that are already available in the App Store.

On Monday, Adobe announced plans for a full fledged Flash player for mobile devices. Flash Player 10.1 is designed to work on smartphones, smartbooks and netbooks as well as PCs and other internet-connected devices. A public developer beta of the browser-based runtime is expected to be available for Windows Mobile and Palm webOS later this year, while public betas for Google Android and Symbian are expected to be available in early 2010.

In addition, Adobe and Research In Motion (RIM) announced a joint collaboration to bring Flash to BlackBerry smartphones, while Google joined Adobe’s Open Screen Project initiative.