Flash for iPhone being considered by Apple

There’s been a lot of noise around the Web on Flash coming to the iPhone.  While some folks are in the "never going to happen" camp, there is some precedent for belief that it will someday be in the iPhone platform.  For instance, take this patent application from Apple (image to the right) that includes both Flash and Windows Media players.

To say that Apple is going  to forgo Flash altogether is probably untrue.  To say that they are taking a wait (and wait, aaaand wait) and see approach is probably closer to accurate.  I’m sure Apple would like to have more control over the Flash player as it currently goes against the App Store’s provisions and would need to be in the more natively "blessed" area of the iPhone development world.  Perhaps a specially "disabled version" of Flash that allows what Apple deems worthy (less CPU, less ad spam, more AIR apps) could satisfy both parties.

Flash may never happen on the iPhone, it is true.  But it isn’t like Apple isn’t hedging its bets.  Much like having an Intel version of OSX going for all of those PowerPC years, there is probably a Flash version of the iPhone running around Cupertino right now.  Apple may one day let it out of prototype and into the real world.  Until then, there is always VNC or Citrix.