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Adobe Discontinues Development of Flash Player on Mobile Devices

Tuesday November 8, 2011 10:20 pm PST by Jordan Golson
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.

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jasheeky
94 months ago
Apple killed flash.
Rating: 109 Votes
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Juan007
94 months ago
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".
Rating: 105 Votes
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B777Forevar
94 months ago
Good.
Flash sucks anyway regardless on any device.
And this is comming from a iPhone and Android user.
Rating: 100 Votes
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jacobo007
94 months ago
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?"
Rating: 95 Votes
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ThomasJL
94 months ago
Good. Now if only Adobe would discontinue development on personal computer Flash...
Rating: 83 Votes
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isopepper
94 months ago
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.
Rating: 75 Votes
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haruhiko
94 months ago
Hahahahahaha Adobe....are you kidding? Then how can Samsung sell their phones anymore?
Rating: 48 Votes
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eagandale4114
94 months ago

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.
Rating: 45 Votes
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Stridder44
94 months ago
Wow! I wasn't expecting this to happen! :rolleyes:
Rating: 43 Votes
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iLilana
94 months ago
good

now maybe they'll try and make something new and innovative and easier on batteries and stuff
Rating: 40 Votes

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