Ramblings of Nick Robillard

Flash is coming to the iPhone - well kinda. The web player will not be supported - instead, and even better, Flash applications will be compilable as native iPhone apps. So really, for 99% of users, Flash for the iPhone is not coming in the way they had hoped.

Personally, I could care less about Flash player support. What titillates me, as a Flash developer, is that I'll be able to make full-featured native apps using something I already know intimately. And that's freaking awesome.

From the Flash CS5 Developer FAQ

The following native device APIs and functionality are supported:

• MultiTouch
• Screen Orientation
• Saving images to Photo Library
• Accelerometer
• Geo-location
• Cut / Copy / Paste

Aw yeah. There's a few missing - like access to contacts but I'm hoping they'll get that worked out.

But don't get too excited. Apparently, Adobe has done this all on their own - behind Apple's back, if you will. The problem now is that Apple could, at any time, not allow Flash compiled apps into the app store because of breaches to the SDK agreement. Many in the Flash community are questioning whether it's even possible for Adobe to accomplish what they have - without reverse engineering or otherwise violating some part of the SDK agreement - specifically section 2.5. So this could get interesting - a nasty legal battle may be imminent.

Here is some far more detailed and researched insight (slight Apple bias but good info) - iPhone Development: Adobe Adds iPhone Native App Creation to Flash.

And here's some Adobe propaganda - Adobe Labs - Adobe Flash Professional CS5: Applications for iPhone. As you can see, several games are already made. I tried That Roach Game and wasn't very impressed. It was quite clunky for what it is. Regardless, this may be a bad indicator of how all Flash iPhone apps will perform.

One thing I do know - things are about to get very interesting in the Flash and iPhone worlds.