No matter how often Apple CEO Steve Jobs claims his firm's reluctance to support Flash is the result of technical concerns, his tone when discussing the platform betrays him, suggesting a more personal angle.

That certainly appears to be the view of his counterpart at Adobe, Shantanu Narayen, who suggested to Businessweek that Apple's attitude to Flash is isolating iPhone from the future of the mobile market.

"To us, this is about where computing is headed," Narayen told the site.

"We expect Flash to be part of all of the devices that count. I think it's going to be an incredible holiday season."

Flash back

In bullish mood, Narayen told the site that 19 of the top 20 mobile manufacturers are committed to developing handsets that support Flash Player 10.1, which launched on Android first at the start of the week.

Indeed, its link up with Android is further evidence of Adobe's close relationship with Google – both firms allied because of their various disputes with Apple.

Android is naturally viewed by many as representing the greatest challenge to iPhone, while Google-owned AdMob's business on iOS has come under severe threat from a change to the iPhone developer agreement.

As a result, Google plans to implement Flash in its forthcoming Google TV set-up, which will also run on Android.

Out in the cold

Apple, however, appears unlikely to change its stance on Flash anytime in the 'hell not freezing over' future, Jobs instead throwing the weight of the company behind HTML5.

"Whenever there's disruption that happens in computing, there are wars that happen that enable people to get disproportionate market share," Narayen said, suggesting Apple is looking to control every aspect of its mobile platform.

"You saw that in the PC era when whoever controlled the applications was able to get dominant market share. Apple is looking at Flash and saying that it keeps them from being able to have the kind of closed system that they would like."

[source: Businessweek]