Much to the dismay of tech websites the world over, Adobe appears to be pulling back from its spat with Apple.

It's announced it is to halt investment in its planned Flash-to-iPhone compiler.

The software is still included in Creative Suite 5, but Flash project manager Mike Chambers has said Apple's decision to effectively block its usage in iPhone development via the forthcoming new developer agreement meant it wouldn't be doing any more work on the feature.

"To be clear, during the entire development cycle of Flash CS5, the feature complied with Apple’s licensing terms," Chambers says on his blog.

"However, as developers for the iPhone have learned, if you want to develop for the iPhone you have to be prepared for Apple to reject or restrict your development at any time, and for seemingly any reason."

Proving a point

Chambers claims the compiler's development has not been without reward, however. Indeed, he reckons its very existence proves that Flash on iPhone is possible, despite Steve Jobs' assertion that the software is too buggy.

"The primary goal of Flash has always been to enable cross browser, platform and device development," he concludes.

“The cool web game that you build can easily be targeted and deployed to multiple platforms and devices. However, this is the exact opposite of what Apple wants. They want to tie developers down to their platform, and restrict their options to make it difficult for developers to target other platforms."

[source: Mike Chambers blog]