Adobe announced that they would be rolling Flash capabilities out to smart phones that previously hadn't been able to support Flash at the Adobe Max 2008 conference in San Francisco. Adobe has made its Flash technology compatible with the Android smartphone operating system developed by the Google-backed Open Handset Alliance. As a result, the enhancement may give devices like T-Mobile's G1 smartphone and other Android-based phones access to a key feature the Apple iPhone lacks. The status on the Blackberry is less clear, as Flash requires a native API and there is no native API on current models.

At the start of its Max conference for developers, Adobe on Monday demonstrated Flash 10 for ARM processors as well as a similarly mobile port of AIR, or its container for stand-alone Flash apps. Although Adobe says it is working on a version of its popular Flash player for the iPhone, Apple is unlikely ever to permit it to appear in the handset's App Store, no matter how much customers want it.

Flash is Adobe's highly popular platform for displaying interactive graphics, animations and multimedia within a browser. According to Adobe, 98 percent of desktop computers currently support Flash, which has led to its widespread use by web developers.
Apple is moreover said to have a vested interest in blocking Flash, as while existing web applications are fairly limited, Flash is powerful enough that it could draw business away from both the App Store and iTunes' music and video sections. Apple may feel particularly threatened by sites such as Hulu, which lets people watch ad-supported movies and TV shows through Flash.