Adobe is killing off Flash for mobile web browsers

SOFTWARE OUTFIT Adobe is killing off flash for mobile browsers, according to a leaked announcement.

The company will instead focus on HTML5 development, which enables web browsers including those on mobile phones to perform essentially the same task as flash but without relying Adobe's proprietary technologies.

Sources close to Adobe who were briefed on the company's future development plans revealed an upcoming announcement to Zdnet, which said, "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. We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations. Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations. We will continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates."

An e-mail briefing to Adobe's partners said in point form that Adobe is stopping development of Flash Player for mobile browsers and will instead concentrate on applications for mobile, expressive content on the desktop (in and out of browser) and increasing investments in HTML5 in general.

Adobe is expected to release the full announcement some time today. µ

Update
Adobe said in a blog post, "We will 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." µ