Adobe abandons mobile Flash development, report says

Source: CNN

In an abrupt about-face in its mobile software strategy, Adobe will soon cease developing its Flash Player plug-in for mobile browsers, according to an e-mail sent to Adobe partners on Tuesday evening.

And with that e-mail flash, Adobe has signaled that it knows, as Steve Jobs predicted, the end of the Flash era on the web is coming soon.

The e-mail, obtained and first reported on by ZDNet, says that Adobe will no longer continue to "adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations," instead focusing on alternative application packaging programs and the HTML5 protocol.

"Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores," the quoted e-mail says.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/09/tech/mobile/adobe-mobile-flash-wired/index.html

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It would be easy to say that Steve Jobs and Apple won, but...

John Gruber:

'Apple didn’t win. Everybody won. Flash hasn’t been superseded in mobile by any sort of Apple technology. It’s been superseded by truly open web technologies. Dumping Flash will make Android better, it will make BlackBerrys better, it will make the entire web better. iOS users have been benefitting from this ever since day one, in June 2007.'

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/11/09/everybody-wins

Yeah, okay, I'm "old school" - I started with programmable HP calculators in the mid 70's. If a phone doesn't easily fit in my pocket or is subject to butt-dialing, it isn't a phone and it isn't worth whatever it costs. Even on the huge-ass things people call phones these days you still don't have a large enough screen to make Flash useful. Hell, my 7 1/2" mini laptop (running Linux) is barely large enough for that shit.

IMO the problem with Flash on mobile devices is that it eats too much battery power.

That said, Adobe AIR is a wrapper for Flash and other web technologies, so Flash really isn't going anywhere.

Most people who comment on these things don't know what they're talking about.

But, if you say so...

The point was that flash is still going to be around and it will.

:P

Much Flash content, like Flash-based games, were designed for a PC user experience, with full controls and a large screen. That doesn't translate well to a 4" smartphone.

Coincidence?

No coincidence.

Ok, I didn't care much for Jobs, but that was hilarious

Flash is annoying, but computers are annoying. If it was up to me it would all be MPEG, but that would be free.

But because of battery life and unreliability and
exploit vulnerability, Flash really needs to die.

Tesha

But the truth is these are all just fads and competing methods of doing the same things and there is a long history behind them and another long history ahead. I have developed a strong prejudice in favor of solutions that do one thing well.

than alot of fads ;)

Software fads can last a long time, look at Microsoft.

I will miss Flash as a program for its cell animation capabilities. No other program came close. It may use a lot of battery power, but it did have the ability to compress animation files amazingly well. I used to use it for creating animations. But in the last versions it has gotten way to techie and geared towards the web geek, as opposed to the artist. But it still stood alone for its innovative design for animators. Will another program for cell animation with great compression for the web, replace it?

Creators like JibJab use it so well:

http://sendables.jibjab.com/originals/big_box_mart

Including one from Adobe called 'Edge.'

Hype for the Mac has already been released. V1 is very limited, but it shows great potential.

Flash is a nearly 20 year old, dinosaur of a technology. I haven't used the Flash program itself in years. As a creative director, one of my first directives at my last two companies was to eliminate it from our web properties all together. No web developer I know uses it if they have a choice.

Recently I was talking with a group of young designers (that don't work for me). I asked if any of them use Flash. Most of them didn't know how and the few who did were not advanced in it.

oh how i miss the days of Macromedia ;)

be hand carried through the last stages of the game.

Someone, somewhere, will be running Flash thirty years from now, just as I occasionally run my Atari 800 software.

I'll start selling books without Qs and Ws