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November 9, 2011

Adobe aborts work on Flash for mobile devices

Apple didn't allow Flash in the browser on iPhones and iPads, so what's the point?

By Jason Stamper

Software giant Adobe will no longer invest resources for developing Flash for mobile devices, the company has announced.

The company says that the alternative HTML 5 technology offers the "best solution" because it is "universally supported".

Though the Flash plug-in works on Android devices and Blackberry’s Playbook tablet, Apple did not allow it on iPhones and iPads.

Saying that it would continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates for existing device configurations, Adobe issued a statement saying that it would no longer "continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations (chipset, browser, OS version, etc) following the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and Blackberry Playbook."

Adobe adds that it will still support third party Flash developers who use its Air product to package their software for various app stores.

As the iPhone has become one of the best-selling smartphones in the world, and Apple’s iPad making up for 97.2% of tablet browsing worldwide and iOS making up for 61.5% of total mobile web browsing, it probably does not make business sense for Adobe to continue R&D work on a mobile version of Flash. Or does it? Join the debate below.

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