Adobe has sought to play down the lack of compatibility between its video-enabling software, Flash, and Apple’s iPhone by devising a way to translate its code to run on the high-profile device. Yesterday Adobe announced that it will introduce a tool that lets computer programmers easily convert software applications that they write in the Flash programming language to code that will work on the iPhone. Flash is designed so that programmers can write one set of code that runs on multiple types of computers and mobile devices, including ones using operating systems such as Android, Windows Mobile and webOS. Apple has to date been the only handset vendor that has declined to collaborate with Adobe. The new option that Adobe is pushing will allow developers to create a second piece of software that they can distribute through Apple’s App Store.

“The engineering teams at Adobe have succeeded in bringing the latest Flash technology to the iPhone, opening the way for the Flash community to deploy to the App Store,” said Adobe’s CTO Kevin Lynch in a statement. A beta, or test version of Flash Professional CS5 will be available later this year. However, this development is not the full step many iPhone users have been waiting for and will not enable iPhone owners to browse Web content built with Flash technology, such as video sites and many online games. “When Apple is ready to bring the full Web browsing experience to iPhone users, we’ll be ready to bring Flash Player to Safari,” added Adobe’s Lynch. Adobe is on a major charm offensive with smartphone vendors at present, having unveiled its Flash Player 10.1 yesterday amid major industry support.