Flash Lite coming to IE for Windows Mobile

Not long after Steve Jobs thumbed his nose at Flash Lite for the iPhone, Microsoft says it'll go ahead and license the pared-down version of Flash for its smartphones.

For chatters using the Windows Mobile version of Internet Explorer, that'll mean fewer Web pages that say "This browser does not support Flash," along with more embedded Flash videos and interactive graphics. (The Windows Mobile version of Opera already comes with Flash Lite support.)

As CNET News.com points out, Flash Lite is a relatively bare-bones version of Adobe's desktop Flash player—and as such, it can't properly render Web pages built with the latest and greatest version of the Flash development tools.

But Flash Lite on the mobile Internet Explorer will be better than nothing, which is what iPhone users are essentially stuck with when it comes to browsing Flash-embedded Web pages on the iPhone's Safari browser.

The iPhone does have a dedicated YouTube application that lets you watch "Leave Britney Alone!!!" and "Don't Taze Me, Man!!!" over and over. But embedded Flash videos are all over the Web, and it's pretty sad that the iPhone—the "Internet in your pocket," as Jobs put it—still can't display them.

Earlier this month, Jobs said that Flash Lite "is not capable of being used with the Web," while the desktop version of Flash would run too slowly on the iPhone. However, Sir Steve doesn't seem to have any stop-gap measures up his sleeves.

Anyway, it's not clear when exactly Windows Mobile users will actually get the Flash Lite plug-in for IE. One would think that a simple software update would do the trick; however, Windows Mobile OS updates have often taken months to trickle down the pipe.

Related:
Microsoft to license Adobe's Flash Lite [CNET News.com]