Adobe set to cease development of Flash Player mobile plugin

by Steven Mostyn - Nov 9 2011, 10:18

If you cast your minds back to when Apple and Adobe were at each other’s throats regarding Flash, a certain Steve Jobs intimated that Flash’s days were numbered and HTML5 was the future standard for Internet video.

Bearing that in mind, a number of industry sites are reporting that software maker Adobe is to cease development for its Flash Player on mobile phones and tablet computers—with a view to shifting its efforts towards the open HTML5 standard.

According to an insider at Adobe, the company is dumping Flash support on mobile platforms, but software developers will still be able to deliver their creations to app stores via Adobe’s proprietary Air platform.

Adobe will continue to support Flash Player on desktops, according to a statement first revealed by ZDNet, but will only address important glitches and possible security exploits for the mobile plugin via Android and BlackBerry devices.

“Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe Air…” the statement outlines. “We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations.”

Prior to his recent death, Steve Jobs remained staunch in his dislike for Adobe Flash—neither the iPhone nor iPad support it—and he even blamed the platform for leeching battery power and causing system crashes on Apple-branded hardware.

In related news, Adobe this week announced its intention to slash 750 jobs as part of a restructuring drive. The job losses will initially affect positions in North America and across Europe.

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