So you’re a company who makes web software that, love it or hate it, most people use, but the company that controls an ever-growing share of the smartphone market refuses to allow your software to be installed on its devices.  What do you do? 

You rub their faces in it.

Adobe has, according to Gear Diary, begun displaying the message shown left when iPhone users attempt to use certain sites or web pages that requires Flash.  The message reads:

Apple restricts use of technologies required by products like Flash Player.  Until Apple eliminates these restrictions, Adobe cannot provide Flash Player for the iPhone or iPod touch.

Translation: Apple’s playing games with your phone and won’t let you use our technology even if you want to.  We’ve been trying, but hey, Apple’s calling the shots here.  Sorry for the arbitrary inconvenience.

There are valid arguments for and against Adobe’s Flash being part of the iPhone, but I think it’s a decision iPhone users should be able to make.  Don’t you?

-M. Nichols

In October, we told you Adobe had been working on a version of Flash for the iPhone and was hoping Apple would approve it for distribution through the iTunes App Store.  This software would, presumably, have allowed users to view Flash media in a standalone application and possibly Flash portions of web sites in Safari.

Well, it now appears Adobe’s Flash will come to the iPhone, possibly as part of an OS update rather than a user-selected download in the App Store.

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple is currently working with Adobe to bring Flash to the iPhone.  Flash, which is available for PCs and many handhelds, would need to work with Safari in order to have real value for users, a functionality that would be questionable if the software were a separate download given Apple’s current third-party software guidelines.  As part of an OS upgrade, however, Flash could work with Safari and other iPhone software.

"It’s a hard technical challenge, and that’s part of the reason Apple and Adobe are collaborating," Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said in an interview with Bloomberg. "The ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver."

Many users (count us among them) have been clamoring for Flash support on the iPhone since its release in 2007.