Adobe to Cease Flash Player Development for Mobile Devices

[pbrauer]

ZDNet is reporting the following statement regarding Adobe Flash on Mobile Devices:

"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 clarifies this by stating:

• Adobe is Stopping development on Flash Player for browsers on mobile.

According to the Adobe blog site, they are now focusing their development efforts on:

• Applications for mobile
• Expressive content on the desktop (in and out of browser)
• Increasing their investments in HTML5 in general

It is important to note that Adobe states very clearly that they will be focusing on Applications for Mobile, which may mean that while Flash as a separate entity to be embedded goes away, it does not necessarily mean that Flash-enabled content will. It may just be how that is realized on the device will change.

Also, Adobe has clearly stated that they will continue development for the Android Platform through version 11.1 of the Player, and will maintain bug and security fixes for the OS. The long-term strategy will be to focus on HTML 5 capabilities as it is now the de facto standard for all browsers, and Adobe AIR for places that cannot be adequately served in a standard browser page.


Sources - (Jason Perlow, ZDNet / Adobe Blogs)