• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, June 7, 2010

Adobe has a new ally in its war with Apple over the lack of Flash support on the iPhone and other Apple devices -- mobile ad network Greystripe. Under a partnership announced Monday, Adobe will offer clients Greystripe's ad technology for converting Flash-based ads into the iPhone-friendly HTML5 format as an alternative to Apple's new iAd unit.

The news comes as Apple is expected to unveil today a new version of its signature device at its annual developers conference in San Francisco.

The companies' alliance is aimed at helping Adobe make an end-run around Apple's ban of its widespread Flash software on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Apple CEO Steve Jobs in April laid out his reasons for excluding Flash in a lengthy open letter, citing factors including being buggy, a battery drain and designed for PCs rather than mobile devices.

Apple irked Adobe earlier that month when it imposed new rules on developers that would effectively block them from using an Adobe software tool for porting applications written in Flash to the iPhone operating system. Greystripe's iFlash technology is also a Flash workaround, but it translates rich media ads created in Flash into HTML5, a Web standard backed by Apple.

Greystripe last month said it had seen a 200% surge in demand for the iFlash ad format following the announcement of Apple's iAd platform, which Jobs promised would redefine mobile advertising by combining the emotional impact of TV ads with interactive aspects of digital media.

Both formats boast the ability to deliver rich media elements like animation and video as well as touch interaction without requiring users to leave the application they are in. Following the iAd launch, Apple was reportedly seeking up to $10 million from brands that want to be part of an initial group of advertisers using the new format.

While Greystripe and Adobe did not detail the scope of their collaboration, it appears that Adobe could package iFlash in the latest version of its flagship Creative Suite of content design tools in place of its own Flash workaround feature.

"By working with Greystripe, a leading provider of Flash authored advertising for mobile devices, we enable agencies to benefit from the power of the Flash platform while also targeting devices with HTML5," said Ricky Liversidge, vice president, product marketing for Flash Platform at Adobe, in a statement.

The release also noted that the iFlash format would be "priced at a fraction of the cost" of the iAd. In addition to supplying ad technology, Greystripe serves its ads across more 2,500 mobile applications on the iPhone, Android and Java-based phones through its network.

How Apple will respond to Adobe teaming up with Greystripe isn't clear. But the move is only likely to heighten the growing animosity between the two companies, whose war of words has escalated since Jobs posted his letter bashing Flash.

Adobe in response launched an ad effort casting the battle over Flash as one about freedom of choice. "No company -- no matter how big or how creative --should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the Web," wrote Adobe co-founders Chuck Geschke and John Warnock in an online letter last month.