One of the key features Google’s Android operating system has had over Apple’s IOS is support for Flash content. The late Steve Jobs famously called it a buggy mess and encouraged everyone to use HTML 5 instead. Jump forward a few years and today, just after announcing nearly a thousand job cuts, Adobe has announced plans to stop supporting Flash for mobile devices. Instead Adobe will focus on developing its new tools for HTML 5. Looks like “Droid does” one less thing.Adobe will focus their efforts instead on making sure users of the mobile Flash platform are able to migrate to the AIR platform, the official statement was as follows:
“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,” Adobe said in the statement. “We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations.”
As both an IOS and Android user I can say that my personal experience with Flash on mobile devices has been buggy and more trouble than it has been worth. Personally, I’ve always eagerly awaited the transition and the news that Adobe is helping it along is only a good thing. Still you can’t help but wonder if this is signaling the death of Flash in general on the horizon.
