Adobe Discontinues Development of Flash Player on Mobile Devices

[MacRumors]

ZDNet is reporting that Adobe has announced to its partners that the company has discontinued development on Flash Player for mobile browsers. The news comes roughly a year and a half after the publication of Steve Jobs' "Thoughts on Flash" open letter, laying out his thoughts on the use of Flash in mobile devices and explaining why Apple would not support Flash on their mobile devices.

Instead of working on mobile Flash, Adobe plans to continue developing its tools to produce applications that work on mobile app stores, including Apple's App Store.

From Adobe's announcement:

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. We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations. Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations. We will continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates.

ZDNet notes that the announcement should go public on Adobe's website in the next day.

Update: The complete announcement has now been posted to Adobe's site.

Article Link: Adobe Discontinues Development of Flash Player on Mobile Devices

 

[jasheeky]

Apple killed flash.

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

That's a shame.

 

[B777Forevar]

Good.
Flash sucks anyway regardless on any device.
And this is comming from a iPhone and Android user.

 

[adder7712]

So, will Flash be taken down from the Android Marketplace?

 

[Stridder44]

Wow! I wasn't expecting this to happen!

 

[haruhiko]

Hahahahahaha Adobe....are you kidding? Then how can Samsung sell their phones anymore?

 

[iLilana]

good

now maybe they'll try and make something new and innovative and easier on batteries and stuff

 

[Mr. Gates]

Too Bad.

But I think there is hope yet for a re refocused and re imagined FLASH for Mobile.

Its not dead, they just need to regroup and think it out. And thats good

 

[HONDAxACURA]

I use an Android, and I do agree flash sucks. However, I do want a tablet to run flash. With this news, I'm not sure I want a tablet anymore, specifically Android tablet.

In any case, flash+touch screen, NOT SO GOOD.... Annoying really.

 

[gugy]

bye, bye Flash.

 

[ppc_michael]

So, will Flash be taken down from the Android Marketplace?

No, the announcement states they'll continue to support the current version for Android.

 

[isopepper]

Right again

Don't need floppy, got CD.
Don't need PS2/Serial, got USB.
Don't need expansion, got Firewire/Thunderbolt.

So many choices were right.

Don't need Flash, got HTML5.

So, now Adobe has given up and is doing the next best thing from their perspective - translating Flash apps for the medium. Good choice.

 

[jacobo007]

Steve Jobs, April 2010

"....Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?"

 

[ThomasJL]

Good. Now if only Adobe would discontinue development on personal computer Flash...

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Great purchase their Adobe. That 4+ Billion for Macromedia sure is working out.

Apple buys NeXT for $463 Million and turns a dead relic into the juggernaut it is now, all in just over 14 years.

 

[iRobby]

Does this mean that Flash is going to be defunct and the standard video will be HTML5?

 

[godknows]

I'd say they better come up with a Flash killer quick before someone else does.

There is certainly a kinda similar market with Google pushing Dart and other things Javascript cannot yet achieve.

 

[eagandale4114]

Great purchase their Adobe. That 4+ Billion for Macromedia sure is working out.

Apple buys NeXT for $463 Million and turns a dead relic into the juggernaut it is now, all in just over 14 years.

Im sure macromedia saw their work flash before their eyes. This will create shockwaves. Many android adverts are going to become full of air.

 

[Juan007]

Two years ago, Steve Jobs said "Flash sucks on mobile devices". Adobe whined, screamed, bitched and moaned about it.

Today, Adobe just said "Flash sucks on mobile devices".

 

[^*..*^]

Use Swifter ...

I use "Swifter" whenever a site tells me I need Flash.
Just copy the site's URL and paste into Swifter. In a few seconds the stuff is converted and I see it in the iPad. No problema.

 

[vvebsta]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Two years ago, Steve Jobs said "Flash sucks on mobile devices". Adobe whined, screamed, bitched and moaned about it.

Today, Adobe just said "Flash sucks on mobile devices".

At least it only took 2 years. Sometimes admitting you're wrong can take a lifetime.

 

[iindigo]

Hahahaha, if this isn't a, "I told ya so" moment, I don't know what is. Good going, Adobe.

 

[ChazUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.7; en-gb; Blade Build/GRJ22; CyanogenMod-7) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Ding dong the witch is dead.

I hope this really pushes the embrace of HTML5 further forward. This is good news.

 

[Geckotek]

Remember those nails I keep mentioning?? Yeah...one more nail...this time to the heart!