Adobe Systems' third-quarter results were hit by a decline in the Japanese market, which has resulted in the firm lowering its expectations for the year.

The software specialist recorded revenue of 199.4m ($292.1m), 11% lower than the same time last year. Net income halved to 27.5m.

Adobe senior vice president and chief financial officer Murray Demo said: "Assuming continued weak economic conditions in each of our major markets, we are targeting our fourth-quarter fiscal revenue at 211m to 219m. This has changed from our previous target primarily due to the recent significant weakness in Japan."

Adobe had expected a growth rate of 15%, which would have set this year's fourth-quarter revenue at 278m.

Demo said that the revised prediction did not take into account any economic impact from the terrorist strikes against the US. However, he added that Adobe did not expect the disaster to affect its core markets.

Revenue for the first nine months of the year was up 6% to 659m, but net profit was down 18% to 117m.

The company has unveiled a number of new product versions at the Seybold Conference in California, including InDesign 2.0 and Illustrator 10.

It has also launched new Adobe AlterCast imaging server software, which is built on Photoshop and Illustrator technology and supports industry standard file formats.

Adobe also introduced Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC, which allows PDFs to be viewed on Microsoft Pocket PC software.