Even though sticker shock is weighing down excitement for the upcoming launch of Apple’s iAd mobile advertising platform, other providers are already cashing in on the craze.

Greystripe, which has made waves recently with its unique “iAds-like” iFlash advertising units for iPhone, announced today the company has seen a 200% growth spike as a result.

Greystripe’s innovative iFlash technology delivers Flash-authored ads as HTML5 into iPhone Applications, creating a favorable alternative to the limited nature of iAds. Greystripe’s “iFlash Custom” ad format, which the company has been delivering on the iPhone platform for over 18 months, provides a similar experience to iAds including rich media animation, touch interactivity and multiple click-actions without leaving the application.

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On the heels of Steve Jobs publishing his harsh criticism of Adobe and its Flash technology in general this morning, Greystripe CEO Michael Chang issued a response firing back at Jobs saying “open or not, Apple’s Flash ban creates huge issues for advertisers.”

The underlying message in Chang’s response is clear; nearly all ad creative is built using Flash, and Apple needs to face it.  ”Apple’s choice not to support Flash on its mobile devices creates huge roadblocks for advertisers,” Chang said in his response.  ”Today, it cannot be understated that almost 100% of agencies and their brand advertisers develop ad creatives in Flash using Adobe tools.”

He also criticizes Apple’s emphasis on HTML5, based on the fact that few development tools exist for creative purposes.  ”Currently, there are no comparable tools to create ads in HTML5, open or not, he continued.  ”This is partially an explanation as to why Apple/Quattro has opted to create the initial iAds, because no one else can, at least not in HTML5.”

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For those of you who are or work with Flash designers, any hopes that Flash will appear on a future version of the iPhone have been all but dashed today. According to Network World, Adobe is halting development of a Flash-to-iPhone software tool, which was introduced with its Creative Suite 5 last week.

A few weeks ago, Adobe Systems was promoting its CS5 technology for building Flash applications that run on the iPhone.  But then Jobs struck back. He just doesn’t want Flash on the iPhone since it “performs too slow” and as always, Jobs will do whatever it takes to get his way.

Last week, Apple introduced an iPhone OS developer agreement, which prohibits developers to use third-party app compilers, including Adobe’s Flash-to-iPhone tool. Lo-and-behold, Adobe comes out with an announcement that it will stop work on its efforts to bring Flash to the iPhone.

Flash isn’t lost in the mobile marketing space, though. Adobe is working closely with Google to bring Flash Player and Adobe Air to Android-based smartphones such as the Motorola Droid, Nexus One, HTC Incredible, and Sprint Evo and even upcoming non-Apple tablets.

Of course, with HTML5, you can do many of the same things that Flash can. Will the lack of Flash on the iPhone hinder your mobile marketing plans, or do you think Jobs is making the right move?

Ever since Apple’s iAd announcement yesterday, many have questioned whether the lack of Flash is going to dilute the effectiveness and long-term viability of the platform, and what it means for the future of mobile advertising on Apple’s devices.

One such person with a keen interest is Greystripe CEO Michael Chang, who yesterday released a response regarding his views on the whole situation.  Greystripe is an ad-network that utilizes Flash-based transcoding to bring the technology to Apple devices, and as such, was watching the iAd announcement very closely.

“True to Apple’s style, the company continues to improve their products and platforms based on consumer feedback.  We are thrilled with the iAd announcement, it’s a thumb’s up for mobile display and brand advertising,” explains Chang.  “Today Steve Jobs highlighted that mobile advertising is not all about search, that it needs to be interactive, elicit an emotional response and function within the app.  We agree 100% and have been doing this for over 18 months with our rich media iFlash ads.”

He then speaks of the difference between HTML5 and Flash for mobile display ads and the many questions left unanswered during the announcement.  “The in-game ad that Apple demoed today was almost exactly like Greystripe’s Alice in Wonderland interactive ad campaign.  The challenge that Apple faces is that they require HTML5, while almost all digital advertising is built in Flash,” Chang continues.  “Unfortunately Apple’s announcement today raised as many questions as it answered.”

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Today at Apple’s iPhone OS 4 announcement, there was the predictable and laughable lack of Flash inclusion once again for the fourth-gen OS.  Though Apple’s new iAd mobile advertising platform will be based on HTML5, where does it leave the rest of the ad-world who does use the seemingly ubiquitous technology?

After the event, during the Q&A portion, Steve Jobs was asked yet again about any future plans regarding Flash — even just in iAds — in which he promptly replied “no.”  It’s now clear that Apple will never use Flash, opting instead for a life of HTML5.  While I’m not saying there’s something wrong with HTML5 from an ad-unit point of view, it’s the simple fact that Flash is used in an astonishingly large amount of ad creative already in use from a brand’s inventory.

Now, when advertisers choose to adapt to the iAd platform for distribution, they’ll have to completely re-work their Flash-based ad-inventory instead of simply using the tried-and-true ad-units they already have.  What’s the solution?

I think with Apple’s long-term blockage of anything Flash, we’ll see an uprising of Flash-based transcoding to allow the same experiences Flash provides, but scaled to adapt to iPhones, iPod touches and iPads.  Greystripe has already made waves with its “iFlash” proprietary transcoding methods, and I think similar methods and fixes will be in the works very soon.  That is if Apple doesn’t block those moves as well, which is a strong possibility.

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Greystripe today announced the results of a survey the company conducted with its advertisers to see what kind of ad units and formats they most preferred for the new iPad.  Not surprisingly, they wanted Flash ads.

Over 50% of those surveyed expressed interest in using Greystripe’s unique “iFlash” ad-units to allow the closest thing available to full Flash-based advertising on the iPad.  Advertisers have a lot of rich media creative, built in Flash, that they use Online- bridging the gap to allow this creative to run on the iPad is a big deal.

Greystripe takes ads created using Flash and transcodes them to run on the iPhone and iPad.  Interestingly enough, advertisers see higher performance with iFlash ads in mobile, compared to the same online campaigns, with average CTRs well above 1%.

“Greystripe’s iFlash technology allows advertisers to easily integrate the online world and the iPad.  Brands understand the potential that the iPad has to change the way data is consumed, like the iPhone did.  They know they need to participate, but many do not have a clear vision of how to take advantage.  Greystripe enables brands to expand their existing campaigns by delivering their standard online creatives built in Flash on the iPad and iPhone,” said Josh Mallalieu, Director, Mobile Media & Integration at Ansible.

Before the iPad even drops, every company around has been readying themselves for the mystical device that debuts in a couple day’s time.  Providers of mobile advertising have been preparing more so than most, including mobile ad-network Gretstripe, who today announced the future availability of “iFlash,” the company’s flash-based ad-units available for the iPhone, for the iPad as well.

Greystripe has seen a lot of success in allowing brands to create flash-based ads for the iPhone using the company’s proprietary transcoding methods, even though Flash has long been denied by Apple.  With the iPad and its increased viewing real-estate, it only makes sense for Greystripe to extend its technology to the new device.

iFlash ads are slightly different on the back-end, but act the exact same way as regular flash-based ads Online, and create the same user-experience.  Greystripe claims that its “iFlash” ads see higher clickthrough rates than even online campaigns, with average CTRs above 1%.

While the mobile ad business is in a state of perpetual motion with Google owning AdMob and Apple owning Quattro, it’s a race to see what works and what doesn’t on the bevy of new devices coming down the pipeline.  Greystripe has put itself in a nice position with iFlash, that is until Google or Apple one-up them with their own release.