It looks like Steve Jobs sharp criticism of Adobe’s mobile Flash offering was enough to send them scurrying off to download the iPhone SDK.  The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] is reporting that Adobe have been examining the public release of the developer’s package, and are considering creating a special iPhone version of the Flash player.

“We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone.  We have evaluated [the iPhone SDK] and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves”Shantanu Narayen, CEO, Adobe

Jobs’ primary criticism was the “missing product in the middle” of Adobe’s range, in-between the basic Flash player for mobile devices (which isn’t apparently good enough for the iPhone) and the bulky full version.  Currently Apple are insisting that third-party software run as standalone apps that shut down as soon as the program is exited (rather than running in the background); it’s uncertain whether Adobe, once Apple approve their Flash offering, will get some degree of dispensation from these guidelines and even be allowed to link into Safari on the iPhone.

Microsoft’s Silverlight developers are also working on bringing the Flash-alternative to the iPhone using the official SDK; however Steve Ballmer has expressed concern about the potential royalties for any actual release.

[via Digg]