Adobe releases Wallaby to jump Jobsian Flash ban

Adobe execs don't want their customers to fret over the company's recent spat with Apple over its decision to make its iPad and iPhone products a Flash-free zone.

The result? Adobe has birthed a prototype piece of software, dubbed Wallaby, that is a Flash-to-HTML5 conversion tool.

Initially, Adobe is making the software available to WebKit-based browsers such as Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome on OSX, Windows-based, and - here's the important bit - iOS, which means the tool works on the iPad, iPhone and iPod, too.

However, Wallaby currently only converts typical banner ads to HTML5, noted Adobe. For example, the tool lacks an ActionScript conversion, which could be used to program inside Flash.

"Wallaby’s design goal was not to produce final-form HTML ready for deployment to web pages. Instead it focuses on converting the rich animated graphical content into a form that can easily be imported into other web pages in development with web page design tools like Dreamweaver," said Adobe's principle product manager John Nack.

It's been nearly 11 months since Apple boss Steve Jobs unloaded his infamous open letter on Flash, defending Apple's decision to completely ban the technology from the iPhone and the iPad.

Despite that, Adobe announced last month that in 2010, more than 20 million smartphones shipped with or were upgraded to Flash Player 10.1, the first full version of the popular runtime software built specifically for mobiles. In other words, 12 per cent of smartphones shipped last year were loaded with Flash.

Adobe clearly still sees the need to placate Apple fanboys, however, even if Jobs thinks Flash is poo on his shoe. ®