Apple iPhone 4
Apple's iPhone 4. Apple

Adobe Flash has finally come to Apple Inc.'s iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, not directly supported but just that the new app tools will be able to export Flash content as an HTML5-supporting format.

At the IBC 2011 Conference and Exhibition, Adobe announced the releases of the new streaming video solutions, including Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5 and Flash Access 3.0 software.

With Flash Media Server 4.5, media publishers can extend their already broad mobile reach via Flash-enabled devices, with the new ability to deliver video content to Apple's iPad and iPhone devices, enabling them to reach the widest audience possible, Adobe said in a statement.

Adobe Flash Access 3.0, a robust content protection and monetization solution, will enable content owners to deliver on-demand content with massive scale and strict studio-level security across a broad range of devices, after the upcoming release of Flash Player 11 and Adobe AIR 3.

The new releases works for publishers, who want videos stored in Flash to be visible on popular Apple products such as iPhone, iPod and iPad. For a recurring fee of $4,500, Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5 software converts website video stored in Flash so it can be seen on Apple handhelds, in an Apple-friendly format called HTTP Live Streaming, according to the Daily Mail.

Till a few days ago, Flash had been considered a major drawback in iPhone when competitors of Apple are taking their smartphones to the next level of supporting Adobe Flash.

According to Apple, Adobe Flash is a big security risk, not to mention it crashes lots and kills your battery life. Rather than using Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript - all open standards. Apple's mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards.

Flash was created during the PC era - for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards - all areas where Flash falls short, Steve Jobs said in a statement earlier.

The flood of media outlets offering their content for Apple's mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of Web content. And the 250,000 apps on Apple's App Store proves that Flash isn't necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.

Jobs said new open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). He said perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Now that Flash content can be indirectly supported in iPhones, iPads and iPods, it is expected that iPhone 5, which is rumored for October release, may also get Adobe Flash support.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 5 is anticipated to boast of significant hardware and software upgrades, along with an 8-megapixel dual-LED flash camera and A5 dual-core processor found in iPad 2, to give stiff competition to other dual-core smartphones found in the market today.

Apple Inc. is expected boost the speed of its A5 chip in the range of 1.2 or 1.5 GHz with 1GB RAM. The iPhone 5 is also rumored to feature iCloud, which will store photos, apps, calendars and documents, instead of the phone's memory storage.

Apple is rumored to be increasing the screen size of iPhone 5 to compete with Android smartphones, probably going for a 4-inch screen, compared to the current iPhone 4's of 3.5- inch screen.

The next-generation iPhone would be released on Oct. 15, reported Techradar.com, quoting France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard. The date coincides with Sprint's plan of banning vacation of its employees from Sept. 30 to Oct. 15. According to reports from Sprint employees, iPhone 5 will be exclusively available with Sprint.

Meanwhile, China's Telecom Corp. Ltd., the nation's biggest fixed-line operator, is expecting the phone to be released next month. These reports suggest that iPhone 5 will most probably be launched worldwide in October. Most probably, iPhone 5 may be launched simultaneously in the United States, France, Germany, United Kingdom, China and Japan.