It's been something of a pest that the iPhone fell short of the expected web 2.0 browsing experience by failing to encompass Flash capabilities. But after a lot of speculation, Adobe has finally confirmed its proprietary proramming language is now being developed for the Apple handset.

As useful as this might ultimately be for displayig embedded adverts in a web page, it also opens up the possibility of the iPhone being able to run the multitude of browser-based games and application built from Flash code.

"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. 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 company announced in a press release.

It's therefore not unreasonable to assume developers might well use this new function to provide iPhone specific content through a web browser and Flash combination – all comfortably outside of the App Store.

It's all conjecture as yet, and it will have to go through Apple's third party developer mangle just like everyone else (even if Adobe sounds unhappy about the prospect), but the possibilities are one step closer now Adobe is fully on board.