Adobe licenses Flash Lite to Microsoft for mobile phones

Steve Jobs may think Flash is not good enough for the iPhone, but the folks at Microsoft are apparently playing nicer and have taken the opportunity to embed a version of Adobe’s streaming video technology into its future mobile web browsers, right alongside its own competing Silverlight technology.

While Microsoft’s own Silverlight Mobile package is not yet available, the company’s move to attain a license for Flash Lite suggest that the company plans to deploy Silverlight for mobile platforms on competitive terms rather than the exclusionary terms we have become accustomed to expect from the software giant.

Along with the mobile Flash platform, Microsoft has also licensed Reader LE, the mobile version of Adobe’s Acrobat PDF reader. Neither company confirmed exactly when Flash Lite and Reader LE for Windows Mobile phones will be available, though Microsoft has said it will be before the release of Windows Mobile 7.