Adult industry professionals mostly reacted with interest to the news, given the widespread popularity of Flash-based players on adult membership websites and video-sharing sites.
Big Sister Media Vice President of Marketing Carlos Borowitz told XBIZ that he's already planning to offer streaming Flash videos and mobile content through his website, which is a cross between Voyeur Dorm and a brothel.
"Flash has changed a lot recently, and the technology is much easier to get to the end user," he said, later adding, "The iPhone is definitely one of the most viable modes of distribution in the States."
But Borowitz also said that adult producers could stand to uncover more information about the typical iPhone user — is it a marketable demographic?
Matrix Content President Stephen Bugbee told XBIZ that his company has converted its entire library of content to Flash while also finding success through mobile distribution via their recently launched MatrixHDMobile.com.
But even though Bugbee said his company would add iPhone distribution to its arsenal, he echoed Borowitz's concern about the appeal of adult content on the device.
"The iPhone is great, but you really can't base a large business model on just being able to stream to an iPhone," Bugbee said. "Although it is nice if you can't do anything else."
Bugbee said that iPhone content could tie into an already existing members area, but he also added that many companies offer content encoded especially for Apple's iPod – content that can also be played on the iPhone.
Jobs voiced his concerns about Flash at a shareholder meeting earlier this month.
What Jobs termed "proper" Flash "performs too slow to be useful" on the iPhone, he said. "There's this missing product in the middle. It just doesn't exist."
In response, Adobe Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen said his company would give it a try anyway.
"We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone," he said.
