In the fast-moving world of mobile tools there are a number of clashes brewing. The one to be watched might be the clash between Adobe Chief Executive Officer, Shantanu Narayen and Apple CEO, Steve Jobs over Flash, the Adobe software that offers interactivity to millions of websites.

Flash looks like a technology that has had its day, Jobs said at a tech discussion previously this month. According to him, Flash is a bug-ridden battery hog. He favors HTML5, a still-evolving Web technology that is able to do a lot of the similar things that Flash does.

In an interview at Adobe's head office in San Jose, Calif., Narayen comes across as soft-spoken and measured, not the kind of guy, who would be ready to fight over contending Web standards.

The Flash Player software, which is free, powers most of the Web's intro screens, video shorts, inserted commercials, dancing typography, and interactive graphics and is installed on 98% of personal computers throughout the world.

It is used by almost 85% of the top 100 websites, delivering 70% of Web games and 75% of Web video, Adobe says. By the firm's count, 19 of the top 20 mobile handset manufacturers are dedicated to building smartphones that support Flash. The single holdout is Apple and its iPhone and iPad.