Finally! Adobe and Apple developers are working on a version of Flash for the iPhone.

Apparently, Steve Jobs had turned down Flash Lite due to how restrictive it was and Adobe requested Apple open up its iPhone architecture to allow Flash to run as a built-in program, rather than just as an app. Either way, Adobe is finally facing the challenge to have Flash running on mobile devices. Hopefully, they don’t start and end with the iPhone leaving Blackberry owners and mobile application developers disinterested in the outcome.

The entire story is below:

Adobe’s CEO, Shantanu Narayen, has suggested that his company is now working with Apple to develop a version of Flash that runs on the iPhone, according to an interview with Bloomberg. Narayen in March of 2008 explained the need to work closely with Apple for the project, as the software would necessitate a close relationship with Safari in addition to the iPhone SDK. Steve Jobs had considered Flash Lite as too limited in functionality, while the standard Flash player would not provide satisfactory performance using the limited resources of the mobile platform.

The software company had originally suggested it could develop Flash for the iPhone by using just the SDK. The statement was later retracted, however, due to the development kit restrictions that prevent third-party code from running in the devices’ built-in programs.

“It’s a hard technical challenge, and that’s part of the reason Apple and Adobe are collaborating,” Narayen said. “The ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver.”