Flash, Video Conferencing Coming to the iPhone?

Is Adobe Flash finally coming to the iPhone?

During an interview with Bloomberg, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen revealed that his company is indeed working on Flash for the iPhone. In development since June of last year, Narayen had some answers for a Flash-hungry public. “It’s a hard technical challenge, and that’s part of the reason Apple and Adobe are collaborating,” said Narayen. “The ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver."

Back in June of 2007, Apple's iPhone hit the market like a proverbial bull in a china shop. After millions sold, the iPhone 3G improved on nearly everything the original had to offer when it was released in 2008, including the ever-so-popular App Store. Despite the success, there was always something (several things) missing. Cut and paste for text was near the top, but full-fledged Adobe Flash support tops the charts for "most desired iPhone upgrade". Well, Flash may finally come to the iPhone.

Last year, Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs called on Adobe to bring Flash to the iPhone. However, he wanted a third version of the software. The original Flash player found on nearly every desktop and laptop on the planet was too demanding for the iPhone's underclocked ARM CPU. While Flash Lite is a smaller, more nimble cousin of the original, Jobs called it incapable of delivering what he wanted for his smartphone.

As of 3:20pm EST, Adobe stock was two cents off its opening price of USD $19.41, but had rebound from the days low of $18.96.

In other iPhone news, a recently discovered patent reveals that video conferencing may be coming soon as well. However, the feature would likely be part of the next iPhone iteration and not available on current hardware. “The device supports a variety of applications," said InformationWeek's Alexander Wolfe, "such as one or more of the following: a telephone application, a video conferencing application, an e-mail application, an instant messaging application, a blogging application, a photo management application, a digital camera application, a digital video camera application, a Web browsing application, a digital music player application, and/or a digital video player application.”

All in all, the device sounds like an iPhone. However, the addition of video conferencing and digital video capturing would definitely be a step up for the Cupertino smartphone. That combined with Flash, and Apple would have yet another hot phone on its hands.