Adobe Flash for all smartphones ... except iPhone

Today Adobe has unveiled Flash Player 10.1 for smartphones, netbooks, PCs along with other Internet-connected devices. The only glaring exception ... no iPhone support.

Flash support on smartphones isn't new, but until now, smartphone users have had to use Flash Lite. Problem is, there's always been a huge gulf between Flash Player and Flash Lite, which has meant that compatibility has been patchy at best.

Flash Player 10.1 will introduce a number of mobile-friendly features such as support for multi-touch, gestures, and accelerometers. Also, Adobe claims that Flash Player 10.1 is more energy efficient.

A public beta of Flash Player 10.1 is expected to be made available for Windows Mobile, Palm webOS and desktop operating systems including Windows, Macintosh and Linux later this year. Public betas for the Google Android and Symbian OS are expected see light early in 2010. If you're a BlackBerry owner, well, Adobe and RIM are working to bring you a compatible Flash Player.

What about iPhone owners? Well, you're out of luck as there's nothing for you to see here. Move alone ...

But is that such a bad thing? After all, Flash Player is an absolute security nightmare on desktop PCs, and requiring endless updates. I'm not sure how thrilled I'd be to be faced with Flash Player updates on my smartphone every time I was to go browsing. If I'm paying per MB, on on a dodgy connection (and chances are that one, if not both of these factors will come into play), I'd be even more upset. I know that the modern web relies heavily on Flash, but this announcement worries me because it's creating a huge tech monoculture that's ripe for attack. Unless Adobe is planning on beefing up security, this could be one of the worst things to happen to smartphone users.

Maybe iPhone users are being spared more than they are being left out ...

Thoughts?