Adobe on Monday announced partnerships with numerous handset operating system makers, including Research in Motion, Nokia, Palm, Google and Microsoft, to bring Flash Player 10.1 to smartphones. Absent from the list: Apple. 

Flash 10.1 is expected to be available as a public beta for Google Android and Nokia’s Symbian OS in early 2010. Developer betas of the browser-based runtime will be available for Windows Mobile and Palm webOS later this year. No date was given for BlackBerry devices. 

Adobe said that the new mobile version of Flash offers accelerated video and graphics capabilities while conserving battery life. The new player offers streaming video in HD and browser-based Web applications. 

“With Flash Player moving to new mobile platforms, users will be able to experience virtually all Flash technology based Web content and applications wherever they are,” said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “We are excited about the broad collaboration of close to 50 industry leaders in the Open Screen Project and the ongoing collaboration with 19 out of the top 20 handset manufacturers worldwide. It will be great to see first devices ship with full Flash Player in the first half of next year.” 

Of course, the elusive twentieth manufacturer missing from Adobe’s lineup is Apple. 

Though the iPhone is not included among the handsets, past reports have suggested that Adobe hopes to bring it to the platform. If that were to happen, though, Flash would have to overcome its various shortcomings on mobile devices as perceived by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. 

With Flash 10.1, Adobe aims to have cross-compatibility with PCs, smartphones, netbooks and a range of devices with various screen sizes. The effort is a part of the company’s Open Screen Project initiative, which includes more than 50 companies.

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Though Flash is still not available on the iPhone, Adobe announced Monday that developers will be able to export their applications created in the format within CS5 for submission to Apple’s App Store. 

Accordingly, Adobe launched its new “Applications for iPhone” Web page, touting the ability to build applications for the iPhone and iPod touch using ActionScript 3. The page shows three applications that were created via Flash and ported to the iPhone OS as native software. 

“We’ve done a lot of work to make sure that applications are quick and interactive, and give you the kind of experience that you would expect from Flash, as well as the kind of experience that you’ve come to expect on your iPhone,” said Adrian Ludwig, a member of Adobe’s Flash team. 

The applications currently available on the App Store are Chroma Circuit, Trading Stuff, Fickleblox, Just Letters, South Park, That Roach Game and Red Hood. All were created with a pre-relse build of Flash Professional CS5. 

“What developers have to do is they have to go inside of Flash Pro and they have to export that project to a native application for the iPhone,” Ludwig said. “While you’re using Flash Pro to build these applications, it’s being converted from .SWF to .IPA.” 

He noted that the method is in compliance with the iPhone developer agreement, which means the software can be submitted to the App Store for approval. The feature will be available for both PC and Mac, and a public beta is planned for later this year. 

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With Apple’s influence hanging over the Mobile World Congress event this week, the Royal Bank of Canada has released a comprehensive comparison chart of eight contenders that threaten to steal some of the iPhone’s customers.

Though the firm still sees the iPhone as solidly superior to its competition, analyst Mike Abramsky told clients he’s still concerned about the risk posed to Apple with the crop of newcomers.

“Some — notably Google, Palm, Microsoft, HTC — appears to offer ‘good enough’ functional alternatives, including PC-like internet browsing, consumer UI/navigation, touch manipulation, messaging, applications/services, carrier functionality — with alternative hardware form factors (e.g. keyboards, sliders, etc) that may appeal to some potential iPhone customers,” he wrote.

Abramsky believes multiple launches on North American and European carriers, expected in the second half of this year, could force Apple’s hand on pricing and marketing as the newcomers compete for mindshare and carrier shelf space. The analyst said that any new iPhone models – referring to his research note from earlier this month – could enter a “more competitive landscape” than the previous versions of Apple’s popular smartphone.

“We see possible revaluation…on revised growth/margin expectations, lowered visibility, and renewed uncertainty re leadership,” he concluded.

Abramsky isn’t the first Wall Street analyst to suggest that Apple may alter its iPhone pricing structure when a third-generation model hits the market sometime this year. Earlier this month, both Kaufman Bros’ Shaw Wu and Bernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi issued similar comments. Wu cited sources who said Apple and AT&T were discussing the possibility of offering customers more data plan options, including some restrictive but more affordable plans, while Sacconaghi simply cited comments from a one-on-one meeting with Apple’s acting chief executive Tim Cook that suggest the company is looking into “different pricing/price points” for the hardware itself. 

RBC Capital surveys the crowded landscape of iPhone’s upstart competitors

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While reports have suggested that Apple may attend next year’s CES to “sit amongst its competition” in consumer electronics, the company has elected not to attend the GSMA Mobile World Congress being held in Barcelona this week. That hasn’t stopped the iPhone from dominating talk at the mobile conference.

Journalists seem to find it hard to cover any news coming out of the event without mentioning Apple’s smartphone by name as a point of reference, even when the announcements seemingly have nothing to do with Apple. 

• Skype’s new bundling deals with handset makers Nokia and Sony Ericsson were nearly dismissed for being irrelevant because the addition of VoIP Read more…

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