Adobe Backtracks on Flash for iPhone

Adobe has poured cold water on its previous claims it will bring Flash support to the iPhone.

Company CEO Shantanu Narayen made the claims when speaking to investors during Adobe's Q1 financial announcement on Tuesday. He indicated that now Apple has introduced the iPhone Software Development Kit, Adobe will develop Flash for the iPhone.

"We believe Flash is synonymous with the internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone," Narayen said. "We have evaluated [the software developer tools] and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves."

In a follow-up statement, Adobe then warned that this isn't the whole story, pointing out that Apple will need to be involved to bring the software to the device.

"However, to bring the full capabilities of Flash to the iPhone Web-browsing experience, we do need to work with Apple beyond and above what is available through the SDK and the current license around it," the company said.

"We think Flash availability on the iPhone benefits Apple and Adobe's millions of joint customers, so we want to work with Apple to bring these capabilities to the device."

The latest comment casts some doubt on whether Adobe is in the process of building such a player.