Flash on the iPhone? Don't hold your breath

Sick of seeing "Your browser doesn't support Flash" when you surf the Web on your iPhone? Better get used to it.

AllThingsDigital reports that during Apple's annual shareholder meeting Tuesday, Steve Jobs told investors that the existing versions of Flash—a popular Web platform that delivers all manner of cool, interactive Web animations—aren't quite right for the iPhone. That essentially scotched rumors that Flash support might be unveiled Thursday during Apple's iPhone software "town hall."

Specifically, Jobs said that the mobile Flash player, dubbed Flash Lite, "is not capable of being used with the Web, while the desktop version of Flash "performs too slow to be useful" on the iPhone. "There's this missing product in the middle," Jobs added.

Huh...OK, then. So when will we get said "missing product"? After all, isn't the iPhone supposed to deliver the Internet in your pocket?

Well, Jobs didn't offer up an answer to that question. Meanwhile, when reached for comment by CNET News.com, Flash developer Adobe—once a trusted partner of Apple's—simply coughed up some PR-speak ("Flash and Flash Lite are huge successes," etc.).

It's bad news for those of us who've been waiting patiently for the iPhone's browser to get with the program and support Flash, a ubiquitous technology on the Web that's sorely lacking in the mobile Safari.

Indeed, phone maker Nokia—which has a mobile browser that's second only to the iPhone—just announced that it's supporting Microsoft's Silverlight platform, a slick Flash competitor that already runs on Windows Mobile phones.

So, iPhone users: how badly do you want Flash support on the iPhone—or would you rather have another feature, such as 3G data support?

Related:
Jobs: “Flash Lite”? More Like “Flash in the Pan” [AllThingsDigital]