Adobe Ends Flash For Mobile

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Before Samsung became one of Apple’s biggest bugaboos, one of the big conflicts between Apple and the rest of the tech world came from Adobe, the folks behind Flash. Steve Jobs was often openly critical of flash, going after its tendency to pull a lot of juice and disparaging it as being made in the “PC era”, an era which we are arguably still in. But now, the word has come down from Adobe that Jobs got the last laugh after all, as Adobe is officially pulling the plug on Flash for mobile.

The word came down from Adobe in a blog post just a couple hours ago, saying that they were dropping Flash to focus more aggressively on HTML5. After all, Adobe opines, most of the major mobile devices use HTML5–some exclusively, as the Jobs influence shows–so why not drop Flash on those devices that so clearly don’t use it very often?

It would seem like a decent move, business-wise: if a large chunk of mobile devices won’t use your product then why offer up your product for those devices? Focus instead on those devices that will use it, like laptops and desktops. Even Jobs himself, while berating Flash’s characteristics as they related to mobile devices, understood (as expressed in his open letter called Thoughts on Flash) that Flash was big business for Adobe and it was more than understandable that they wanted to export it to other devices. Of course, as Jobs also went on, there were more than a few problems with Flash on mobiles, so maybe they needed to keep out of the mobile game. And indeed, that was what ended up being the case.

This move was naturally not well received in several ports, with responses ranging to optimism at Adobe’s bold moves to baying for metaphorical blood or at least a whole lot of pink-slippings. But at any rate, the die now seems cast, and Flash on mobile devices is pretty much out.

So what do you guys think here? Was it a good move for Adobe to drop Flash on mobile gear? Or is this just the beginning of the end for Flash? No matter what you think, we want to hear from you down in the comments section below!