n an abrupt about-face in its mobile software strategy, Adobe will soon cease developing its Flash Player plug-in for mobile browsers, according to an e-mail sent to Adobe partners on Tuesday evening.
And with that e-mail flash, Adobe has signaled that it knows, as Steve Jobs predicted, the end of the Flash era on the web is coming soon.
...
"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," the quoted e-mail says.
...
Despite attempts to breathe life into Flash on other mobile devices -- namely, Android and BlackBerry OS -- Adobe has failed to deliver a consistently stable version of the platform on a smartphone or tablet. In WIRED's testing of the BlackBerry PlayBook in April, Flash use caused the browser to crash on a consistent basis. And when Flash was supposed to come to tablets with Motorola's Xoom, Adobe was only able to provide an highly unstable Beta version of Flash to ship with the flagship Android device.
"Adobe has lost so much credibility with the community that I'm hoping they are bought by someone else that can bring some stability and eventually some credibility back to the Flash Platform," wrote software developer Dan Florio in a blog post on Wednesday morning.
The drastic reversal in Adobe's mobile plans comes in the wake of the company cutting 750 jobs on Tuesday, a move prompted by what Adobe labeled "corporate restructuring."
Source:
Adobe abandons mobile Flash development, report says - CNN.com