Flash Will Remain Key Video Format For Adobe Systems

At the same time it is developing tools to allow Web designers to format video in a variety of ways, Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) is determined its proprietary standard won't be a flash in the pan.

Adobe's Flash Player for formatting and viewing online video has become a key tool for delivering moving pictures for everything from auto test drives to water skiing squirrels. But it's become a point of contention among technology rivals as more content of all kinds moves from the desktop to mobile devices.

Phones and tablet computers made by Apple Inc. (AAPL) don't support Flash. The Xoom tablet computer, introduced recently by Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) was introduced without Flash, although a version of the software will be available for the device soon.

"We'll continue to innovate in Flash because it's a customer pain point and a customer need," Adobe Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen told investors at the Morgan Stanley Technology and Media conference in San Francisco. "We have to push the envelope."

Adobe, also known for its Acrobat and Photoshop software, has seen results improve thanks to strong demand for its Creative Suite 5 software for graphic and Web design. Flash will remain a key part of that portfolio of creative tools because other formats, such as video over HTML, don't protect content, which Web developers desire, Narayen said.

Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple, made a public issue of Flash last spring when he said Apple would not support the technology on its phone and tablet devices because it was occasionally unstable.

Regardless, Flash remains a common format for online video. Thousands of Web sites deliver content using it and retaining that status is critical for Adobe.

Adobe has created a new gaming engine within Flash, dubbed Molehill, that allows developers to deliver games online. Adobe's goal is "enabling people to deliver these applications on different mobile operating systems as well as through the [Web] browser," Narayen said.

Recently GameStop Corp. (GME), a game retailer, announced it would begin offering a suite of games through an online arcade created in Adobe's Flash Player.

Apple supports video formats that the Android mobile operating system by Google Inc. (GOOG) does not. In the long-term Narayen said Adobe seeks to be "agnostic in terms of standards," used by various device makers. But in the short term "the reality is that Flash is still by far the most ubiquitous video format out there."

-By Steven D. Jones, Dow Jones Newswires; 360 834-1865; steve-d.jones@dowjones.com

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