Adobe has been forced to clarify CEO Shantanu Narayen’s comments earlier this week regarding the possibility of a Flash client on the iPhone.  As we suggested yesterday, the technical and licensing limitations of the current SDK - particularly the lack of background processes or Safari-plugins for third-party software -  are enough to prevent Adobe from developing a new iPhone-specific client, unless Apple step in to allow them extra flexibility.

“Adobe has evaluated the iPhone SDK and can now start to develop a way to bring Flash Player to the iPhone. 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” Adobe statement

“[E]ven if Adobe was granted a special dispensation to dig deeper into the iPhone, it couldn’t actually distribute Flash onto the iPhone unless Apple approved its inclusion in the App Store or bundled it with the iPhone. That is, unless Adobe wants to hook up all those jailbroken iPhones with Flash, which I guess it could technically do but would probably ruin its chances of ever getting an official blessing for Flash on the iPhone” Tom Krazit, CNet

Adobe are yet to confirm whether they are currently working with Apple with regards those dispensations, and as such it’s fair to assume that any Flash software or plugin for the iPhone is some time off.