Even before all the patent lawsuits the original mobile phone dispute is Apple vs. Adobe over Flash. Apple has made a point out of not supporting flash on its iOS devices, much to Adobe’s chagrin. Adobe announced today that it has created a solution to the problem, and Flash will be viewable via Adobe’s new service Flash Media Server 4.5.
Apple’s iOS version of Safari still won’t support Flash, this is a change in how Flash content is delivered to iOS devices. Adobe’s Flash Media Server 4.5 will detect what type of device is attempting to view the content and will stream Flash videos in a format that is supported by iOS. As of right now only Flash videos are supported in Flash Media Server 4.5, but Flash advertisements will be coming soon.
For Apple users this is currently the best of both worlds: All of the Flash videos you want but without any of the negatives with running Flash. Since Flash will not be running on iOS it will not eat up the same processing power or have the energy draining properties of Flash on mobile devices. There have been attempts in the past to convert Flash into HTML5 in hopes to bringing Flash to iOS, but none of those attempts have brought Flash to Safari.
It appears that Adobe could no longer ignore the large amount of web traffic generated on iOS devices. The feud is not over, and this might actually spark a new feud with other mobile platforms. If iOS devices are able to get all the benefits of Flash without the negatives why can’t Android or Windows Phone 7? Adobe might be opening up a can of worms with Flash Media Server 4.5.
