Poring through the latest iPhone 2.0 firmware that Apple has distributed to developers, The Boy Genius spotted that a new YouTube plugin for MobileSafari.app has been added.  At present, video embedded into webpages won’t display in the iPhone’s browser, and only YouTube content is visible in a separate program.  It’s unclear right now whether this new plugin will simply embed the separate YouTube app into the webpage, or is a sign of more advanced Flash development on Apple’s part.   

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has previously criticised Adobe’s Flash offerings, claiming the full desktop version to slow and the specially-formatted mobile version not good enough for the iPhone.  In response, Adobe examined the iPhone SDK to see whether they could code a unique version of their embedded Flash viewer for the handset; however, Apple’s third-party software rules scuppered any chance of that, as they do not allow for Safari plugins, only standalone apps.

As it stands, then, the only possibility for an official Adobe Flash solution with the current SDK is if Apple gives them special treatment and permits a version of their software to work with Mobile Safari.  This new Firmware 2.0 plugin could be a sign of that, but it’s simply too early to say.