Private-equity backed video technology firm Skyfire, best known for its mobile browser, has unveiled an application for watching Flash videos on Apple's iPhones.

Apple has been a strong opponent of Adobe's Flash technology, criticizing its power management, among other things, and it has embraced a newer set of tools for building web applications known as HTML 5.

Many Internet pages running applications using Flash technology have had to create special versions for Apple devices.

Users of Skyfire's new VideoQ application can send links to videos from their browsers to watch them in the app, which Skyfire hopes to build into a video entertainment hub.

VideoQ will at first be available in North America only, but Skyfire plans to expand its reach later.

California-based Skyfire, whose investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and Trinity Ventures, said its mobile browser has been downloaded 8 million times so far.

(Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Will Waterman)

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