Adobe Abandons Flash Player for Mobile Phones

 

Adobe is throwing in the towel.

The Silicon Valley software company, which makes Photoshop and the ubiquitous Flash for websites, announced Wednesday it will no longer support the mobile version of its Flash Player for smartphones and computer tablets.

Instead, the company, which was co-founded by University of Utah graduate John Warnock, will focus its development on the programming language HTML 5, which is an easier way to develop animation and video on the Web.

The news is not surprising for Web and mobile application developers because the Apple iPhone and iPad, the world’s biggest-selling portable devices, have never supported Flash. And that Adobe will stop development for Flash should not affect what developers do, they said.

“You look at the horsepower to run Flash and the battery drain, it was never going to be the solution long term,” said Clark Stacey, president of Salt Lake City video game developer, Smart Bomb Interactive, which makes the Flash-based Web-browser game, “National Geographic Animal Jam.”

“We have not done anything Flash-related since Day One,” said Andrew Howlet, president and CEO of Rain Interactive in American Fork, which makes mobile apps for clients such as KSL, Skullcandy and Sony Music. “Adobe no longer has to throw good money at something. It became clear it wasn’t going to be adopted by Apple and by other small devices.”

Adobe Systems’ surrender is the end of a long and controversial battle with Apple over what would be the primary way of developing video and animation on mobile devices. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs adamantly refused to have the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad support the mobile Flash Player, claiming Flash was too slow, a big battery drain and was not an open platform for developers.

“The mobile era is about low-power devices, touch interfaces and open Web standards — all areas where Flash falls short,” Jobs wrote in a now-famous 1,500-word letter to customers in April 2010, explaining why his devices would not support Flash.