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This is the end of flash. Mobile is the future of computing and if Adobe is giving up on flash for the mobile web, then they're giving up on flash for the entir

This is the end of flash. Mobile is the future of computing and if Adobe is giving up on flash for the mobile web, then they're giving up on flash for the entire web. The statement that they're shifting focus to air apps is to save face. The only reason people want to build AIR apps is because they already know flash from working with it on the web. And you know what? That's awesome. What the interactive web needs, flash, canvas or HTML5, is creative tools that people like adobe used to be really good at producing.

dave_sullivan 15y ago
I think you're talking about 2 different things when you say "the end of flash". If you mean the end of the flash runtime for mobile browsers, then that's accurate. If you mean the end of flash as a dev platform (that is as3, flex, etc.), I didn't get that at all from the article. As it stands, I can write one app that will work on any desktop browser as well as across a growing range of mobile devices, including iOS. The performance really seems to be near native on iOS (for an example, see Defenders HD--I have no relation whatsoever with the devs but I do know it was done in flex). Speaking for myself, I really like as3 and flex for certain tasks and hope Adobe doesn't abandon it as a dev platform.
- kinofcain 15y ago
  True, I'm talking about two different things. Three, really: mobile flash, desktop browser flash, and the app-packaged flash solutions like AIR. I don't think we can really split mobile web flash from desktop web flash, so I think that Adobe is fully aware that browser flash is dead, and I can't see them putting any real resources into the desktop version. Browser flash has, since it was omitted from iOS, limped along under the promise that it was coming to mobile devices "any day now". And every crappy implementation was met with "well you should see it on the next version of [android os|android phone|blackberry]". But that promise is gone, and browser flash is now a dead product with a rapidly shortening shelf life. The reason I think the death of browser flash is also going to kill AIR (Packaged Flash), is because it eliminates the easy entry point that the AIR platforms had. AIR was barely successful only because it took advantage of a huge, huge ecosystem of people writing browser flash. But that ecosystem has hit it's high water mark and is now officially receding: New developers aren't going to go out of their way to learn browser flash, and people aren't going to pick packaged flash over other tools if they don't already have a vested interest in the language and the runtime. It's ok, but it's just not that great, and at the end of the day true "write once, run anywhere" isn't that important (and it's a bit of a myth), and if it is for you, then write a web app.
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- Yhippa 15y ago
  I hear echoes of the JVM in your comment and it does remind me of the original promise of Java: "write once, run everywhere".

dave_sullivan 15y ago

I think you're talking about 2 different things when you say "the end of flash". If you mean the end of the flash runtime for mobile browsers, then that's accurate. If you mean the end of flash as a dev platform (that is as3, flex, etc.), I didn't get that at all from the article. As it stands, I can write one app that will work on any desktop browser as well as across a growing range of mobile devices, including iOS. The performance really seems to be near native on iOS (for an example, see Defenders HD--I have no relation whatsoever with the devs but I do know it was done in flex). Speaking for myself, I really like as3 and flex for certain tasks and hope Adobe doesn't abandon it as a dev platform.

kinofcain 15y ago
True, I'm talking about two different things. Three, really: mobile flash, desktop browser flash, and the app-packaged flash solutions like AIR. I don't think we can really split mobile web flash from desktop web flash, so I think that Adobe is fully aware that browser flash is dead, and I can't see them putting any real resources into the desktop version. Browser flash has, since it was omitted from iOS, limped along under the promise that it was coming to mobile devices "any day now". And every crappy implementation was met with "well you should see it on the next version of [android os|android phone|blackberry]". But that promise is gone, and browser flash is now a dead product with a rapidly shortening shelf life. The reason I think the death of browser flash is also going to kill AIR (Packaged Flash), is because it eliminates the easy entry point that the AIR platforms had. AIR was barely successful only because it took advantage of a huge, huge ecosystem of people writing browser flash. But that ecosystem has hit it's high water mark and is now officially receding: New developers aren't going to go out of their way to learn browser flash, and people aren't going to pick packaged flash over other tools if they don't already have a vested interest in the language and the runtime. It's ok, but it's just not that great, and at the end of the day true "write once, run anywhere" isn't that important (and it's a bit of a myth), and if it is for you, then write a web app.
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Yhippa 15y ago
I hear echoes of the JVM in your comment and it does remind me of the original promise of Java: "write once, run everywhere".