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No Java, Flash for iPhone this Christmas

There is still a little time left, but it doesn't look like Apple iPhone users will see Adobe Systems and Sun Microsystems get Flash and Java up and running on Apple's handheld device by Christmas.

Although both Sun and Adobe have expressed a desire to back the iPhone for nearly a year, neither the Flash Player nor Java Virtual Machine run on the device. And it appears that little to no progress is being made. Sun and Adobe, the chief proponents of the Java and Flash platforms, respectively, repeat what they've said all year: that they are still working to get their software platforms running on the trendy phone. Apple, for its part, did not respond to numerous inquiries about the iPhone from InfoWorld.

Enabling Flash and Java to run on the iPhone would expand the volume of applications that could run on the device. But no one seems to know why Flash and Java aren't available for the iPhone. By comparison, the mobile Flash Lite does run on the Symbian OS, an Android version is in the works, and the forthcoming Windows Mobile version will support it. The Java VM or its mobile cousin J2ME run on the Android, Symbian, and Windows Mobile OSes.

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