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Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

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Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#2
If true, I believe it would be healthy for the mobile web.

There are still developers out there who believe that Adobe will come up with a decent mobile Flash experience, even though it has failed to deliver on those promises for the better part of a decade. If Adobe just comes out says "Not gonna happen", we can all move on and invest our time and energy in technologies that actually have a future.

Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#3
It's very nice to see Adobe embracing open standards. I look forward to the day when I can completely give up Flash (for Hulu) and Silverlight (for Netflix) completely.[1] They are the source of almost all the issues and browser crashes I've experienced.

I never would have guessed it in the 1990s, but in this day and age, native applications and open web standards are the way to go. Java held such promise for time, as did flash, etc.

I wonder if their declines are due to their essentially proprietary nature, or due to poor technical choices made by their stewards. (though the latter could be called an example of the former.)

[1] In fact, since Hulu is doing so much better than netflix these days I think we'll be giving up netflix completely before too long. I would have thought the ads would be an issue, but Hulu has streaming down solid, and Netflix for whatever reason is more flakey.

Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#5

If true, I believe it would be healthy for the mobile web. There are still developers out there who believe that Adobe will come up with a decent mobile Flash experience, even though it has failed to deliver on those promises for the better part of a decade. If Adobe just comes out says "Not gonna happen", we can all move on and invest our time and energy in technologies that actually have a future.

Unfortunately, users are still going to be demanding for a while that their online flash games work.

Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#6
Flash has been dead tech walking on mobile ever since Apple passed on it after years of vapourware promises and getting nowhere fast with performance issues -- ones that still persist today on the devices that actually have a Flash player.

Jobs especially was roundly criticized for his public stance on this, but in the end, he was proved right: Adobe never could get Flash working properly on a low-powered device.

Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#8
Did Adobe ever put a serious effort into mobile Flash development? It seems they were more interested in blaming Apple for the lack of mobile Flash than actually doing the work required to make Flash a remotely viable option for mobile devices.

I wonder, what was the catalyst that caused Adobe to admit what everyone else already knew? Perhaps they saw the 5 year anniversary of the iPhone on horizon and figured enough BS is enough.

Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#9
post #7

I really hope Adobe can make the transition to a standards-based world fast enough for them to remain a significant player. It is so hard for a mega-company to wean itself from the fat margins of a proprietary world they created.

Since Adobe's fat margins were from authoring tools, presumably that opportunity still exists. AFAIK none of the existing HTML5 authoring tools are close to Flash in power.

Re: Adobe ceases development on mobile browser Flash, refocuses efforts on HTML5

#10
post #7

I really hope Adobe can make the transition to a standards-based world fast enough for them to remain a significant player. It is so hard for a mega-company to wean itself from the fat margins of a proprietary world they created.

They've already been making this transition for at least a year and probably planning it for even longer than that -- look at Muse, look at Edge.

Adobe doesn't give a crap about the Flash Player for its own sake, it was just a loss leader for their tools business, which anyone who has been paying attention would have noticed started leaning towards html and away from Flash a while ago now.

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