Adobe Loses to Apple: “Flash Player” For Mobile Devices Development Ceased!

Published on November 9, 2011 By DrJBHL In Personal Computing

Big news, and a big relief to Apple mobile device owners. Adobe has announced it will cease development of “Flash Player” for mobile devices.

Adobe shares fell 11% with this news as it means devs will no longer be developing apps for Flash, and will focus on tools for HTML5 development.

This will cause a 7% layoff at Adobe and decreased profits over the next year.

The fight over HTML5 vs. Flash started when the late Steve Jobs refused to use Flash in Apple devices and iOS due to “an inferior browsing experience with Flash.”

“HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively,” Adobe Vice President Danny Winokur said in the blog. “This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.” – D. Winokur, Adobe V.P.

Mr. Winokur also stated that Adobe would continue to develop Flash for mobile device apps, which would mean that Adobe Air would also have to be installed on the devices for the Flash apps to be able to run.

It would seem that once again Mr. Jobs knew a good thing when he saw it and changed our tech world. Thanks for spotting this, Hankers.

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2011/11/09/adobe-stops-flash-development-concedes-to-apple/

Update:

Adobe apparently has given up on Flash for HDTV as well, which might be the death blow to Google TV.

http://mashable.com/2011/11/10/adobe-abandon-flash-tvs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mashable%2Ftech+%28Mashable+%C2%BB+Tech%29

Comments (Page 1)

Hankers

on Nov 09, 2011

Could be some big advantages here going forward.

kona0197

on Nov 09, 2011

First you said:

Big news, and a big relief to Apple mobile device owners. Adobe has announced it will cease development of “Flash Player” for mobile devices.

Adobe shares fell 11% with this news as it means devs will no longer be developing apps for Flash, and will focus on tools for HTML5 development.

Then you said:

So I'm confused...

DrJBHL

on Nov 09, 2011

Maybe because you're seeing a 100-0 situation. Adobe may (if they can find devs so interested) to continue to develop apps using Flash, but Flash needs Adobe Air. HTML5 is organic to the OS. Sort of like HP saying they're continuing to develop WebOS... maybe they are, but not the way Windows, iOS and Linux are being developed.

They've admitted defeat gracefully... or as gracefully as they can. In other words, the competition is over... like in an election. They'll continue counting the votes, but the remainder won't determine the election result.

kona0197

on Nov 09, 2011

Wonder if they will continue to develop flash for use on the desktop.

DrJBHL

on Nov 09, 2011

Adobe has announced it will cease development of “Flash Player” for mobile devices.

So the answer to your question kona, is yes. Most definitely.

kona0197

on Nov 09, 2011

I don't get it. So why not put Flash on the iPad? After all Flash runs on Macbooks.

Draakjacht

on Nov 09, 2011

because Apple wants to take over the market and have people buy their programs to produce the material?

DrJBHL

on Nov 09, 2011

Because HTML5 is far superior and because it's on the majority of mobile devices?

Snowman

on Nov 09, 2011

Because Adope sucks?

RiddleKing

on Nov 09, 2011

I'm a digital marketing manager and i can tell you html5 is superior and has a higher user base, ease of implementation, error free and performance advantages.

Did you know flash does not support 64bit browsers? Thats very annoying and arrogant towards processor enhancements and performance advantages etc

tazgecko

on Nov 09, 2011

Good...

Alstein

on Nov 09, 2011

I want to see Flash eradicated forever.

Most annoying program I deal with.

kryo

on Nov 09, 2011

I must have missed the part where mobile Flash actually got out of beta...

DrJBHL

on Nov 09, 2011

You didn't. It isn't... and won't be. Guess it's in the ...kryogenics chamber.

Sinperium

on Nov 10, 2011

Sad thing is--with all the flash bashing that's gone on--there is a ton of stuff flash does that HTML 5 can't and won't. Oh--"but we can watch videos on it now"--flash does a lot more than just this.

The biggest issue was flash not growing with the technology and re-inventing itself. Adobe dropped the ball on bringing it to the next level.

So now I can spend the next several years developing in a nascent HTML 5 that will itself probably be replaced right about the time it becomes usable.

Meh.

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