Nokia, Opera side with Adobe on Flash

Nokia and Opera Software have taken sides in the Adobe-Apple battle over Flash multimedia support: They are in the Flash camp.

On Thursday executives from Nokia, the world's largest maker of cell phones, and Opera Software, the maker of a leading mobile browser, said they'd support the new Flash 10.1 software that is coming out. Opera's co-founder Jon von Tetzchner was quoted as saying "It is the only proprietary part of the Web we support."

Getting these two companies on board, as well as Google's Android, which also supports the software, is a big win for Adobe Systems in its battle against Apple. Last month Apple CEO Steve Jobs knocked the Adobe Flash multimedia software, which is used in most Web video and games, for being proprietary, sapping battery power, not supporting multitouch interfaces, posing security risks, and being unstable. "Flash is the No. 1 reason Macs crash," Jobs said in his open letter detailing the many reasons that Apple doesn't support the software.

Flash-based video and games are found on many Internet sites. And the technology is supported on most smartphones and mobile devices. But Apple does not allow Flash on any the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.

Adobe has accused Apple of simply trying to control the market. The battle has heated up over recent months with a war of words and with players in the industry are starting to take sides.

Nokia and Opera are just the latest companies to side with Adobe. Earlier this week it was reported that Time Warner and NBC Universal have told Apple they won't spend the time and money to rework their Flash-friendly video libraries to make them compatible with the iPad.

CNET's Stephen Shankland, who has been following the brouhaha closely, notes that the public fracas has had little effect on consumers. Developers are still creating thousands of new applications for the iPhone and the iPad without Flash. The downside is that many existing Web sites with Flash-based games, applications, and video streaming won't work on the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. To get more of the inside scoop on what the Apple-Adobe battle means check out his FAQ.

This article was first published as a blog post on CNET News.