Adobe confirms that Apple's rejection led to death of mobile Flash

Last week, Adobe announced it was killing development on its mobile Flash player.

Today, the company's principal product manager for developer relations Mike Chambers has confirmed that it was Apple's rejection of the format that lead to its demise:

The Flash Player was not going to achieve the same ubiquity on mobile as it has on the desktop. This one should be pretty apparent, but given the fragmentation of the mobile market, and the fact that one of the leading mobile platforms (Apple's iOS) was not going to allow the Flash Player in the browser, the Flash Player was not on track to reach anywhere near the ubiquity of the Flash Player on desktops.

Adobe has now moved its focus to AIR and HTML5 apps, but will also provide bug fixes and ongoing scurity updates for Flash.

Despite the passing of former CEO Steve Jobs, Chambers says "no matter what we did, the Flash Player was not going to be available on Apple's iOS anytime in the foreseeable future."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Nov 2011 1:44

xnonsuchx

Maybe if they hadn't turned Flash into bloatware, things might be different.

14.11.2011 08:00 #1

flyingpen

Originally posted by xnonsuchx: Maybe if they hadn't turned Flash into bloatware, things might be different. Maybe if Apple wasn't ran by a bunch of dicks who care more about their person agenda's than their users their products wouldn't be crap.

Carpe Noctem

14.11.2011 08:20 #2

dali

I hate flash. I think it's just not the way the web should be. But, since it's been a reality on desktops all over the past years, with so many sites still depending on it, and phone makers have never hesitated before claiming that their devices were providing "the full web browsing experience", it's their responsability to open their platforms to plugins which have, like it or not, consolidated as a standard.

In short, it's a shame that this war between these companies was finally won by Apple, for much I dislike both of them.

"You know, it seems that quotes on the internet are becoming less and less reliable." -Abraham Lincoln.

14.11.2011 08:42 #3

simpsim

There is still far too reliance on flash ATM to ignore it altogether IMO. Unless web developers can find alternatives and move away from it, we're going to see a far bigger fragmentation between mobile and desktop browsers in future.

Once mobile browsing becomes more prevalent than desktop, the access to Flash based services will diminish further, so it'll probably kill off flash altogether eventually anyway.

14.11.2011 09:10 #4

plutonash

Blaming apple for its demise? Wouldn't it be Adobe's fault for not making it more efficient and working with apple on it more. Well there's still flash 11 I guess.

"Cable thief is a victimless crime."

14.11.2011 10:23 #5

LordRuss

If so many many desktops & other phone platforms & other tablets are using Flash 'other' than Apple, why is Adobe crying about the death of Flash? in the whole scheme of things the PC market alone makes up for whatever loss they should be whining about (and this is is in the usage of ad profiteering & the likes here).

Unless they REALLY did a lot of blow & blew so much money away on a 'lost wax technique' of some kind of programming that will most definitely never see the light of day (dreamed up on one of their LSD, all tech acid bender Fridays) during the Bush administration, then something is afoul here.

Flash has obviously been adapted in huge part in droves, so just dropping it isn't going to be excepted with open arms either. And last check had Air gasping for such as well.

http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

14.11.2011 12:46 #6

KillerBug

Flash works on mobiles...and Adobe has said that they will keep making new updates for it. It is on every mobile platform except Apple already, so we really are not missing out on anything. Flash is the past, the current at best...but not the future, so we don't need any more feature updates. That is why Adobe isn't going to be making any.

What it seems to boil down to is that Adobe hopes to sell subscriptions to the newer versions of their software to companies that want to keep current and move to HTML5, but refuse to even consider that the free, open-source alternatives are better.

...And Apple didn't win this war; in fact, they would probably be close to monopoly if not for Steve Jobs being stubborn and saying incredibly dumb things like, "If you want porn, get an android"...I think that one sentence sold more Androids than anything google ever did. Apple's customers did lose this war because Flash is still common and useful, but that does not mean that Apple won.

15.11.2011 05:27 #7

luigirez1

What about Frash...

15.11.2011 21:03 #8

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