Skyfire promises Flash video playback on its iPhone app

Mobile browser-maker Skyfire submits its mobile app for the iPhone, whose big draw will be playing back Flash video that's been transcoded into HTML 5 standards.

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Jessica Dolcourt

Sept. 1, 2010 1:00 p.m. PT

Mobile-browser builder Skyfire is striving to make good on its vow to get a solution for streaming Flash video onto the iPhone--without breaking any of Apple's restrictions against third-party browsers.

On Wednesday, Skyfire submitted Skyfire for iPhone to the App Store, albeit five months after it had promised to follow in Opera's footsteps.

Skyfire for iPhone is modeled after the Skyfire for Android app that debuted in late April. As with that version, Skyfire's iPhone app will contain a video playback button to stream Web video through Skyfire's servers.

In order to get the video playback through Apple's gauntlet, Skyfire will transcode the Flash video into HTML5 on the fly before pushing content down to your iPhone. What's more, the app will also compress video data by up to 75 percent.

These workarounds are technical and tricky. Will they be enough to gain Apple's coveted approval? Skyfire is confident that the answer is yes. The company has worked closely with Apple's guidelines for HTML5 on iOS, Skyfire said in a press release. Furthermore, Skyfire says it has reached out to Apple for feedback.

We'll get you a hands-on review of the app as soon as we can. In the meantime, you can get an idea of how Skyfire for iPhone may look and behave in the video below of Skyfire 2.0 beta for Android.

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