It is about time Adobe woke up:

The beginning of the end for Adobe's Flash

By David Goldman @CNNMoneyTech November 10, 2011: 6:16 AM ET

Adobe will no longer develop its mobile Flash app, though it will continue to support it for Android users.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Adobe is abandoning its Flash software for mobile devices. Don't panic: For consumers, this is a good move.

Adobe is moving away from its 15-year-old technology to instead embrace a universal standard for displaying rich media on the Web. Shifting to HTML5 -- the new, broadly accepted Web standard -- is a bold move for Adobe. Many smartphone and tablet owners, particularly those with i... and iPads, have not been able to view media coded for Flash on their mobile devices.

Flash is a type of software called "middleware," an add-on extension to the browser that allows rich content like video and games to be viewed. HTML5, by contrast, allows developers to embed that content right into a website without the need for middleware. That means video and geolocation services can be baked in. HTML5 has the added benefit of allowing content to be viewed offline.

In April last year, Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500)'s then-CEO Steve Jobs ranted about Flash on Apple's website, saying the software is "closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn't support touch-based devices." He said iPhones and iPads would never support Flash because "new open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too)."

He suggested that Adobe (ADBE) focus on creating HTML5 tools instead of Flash. A year and a half later, Adobe appears to have admitted that Jobs was right.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/10/technology/adobe_flash/index.htm?source=cnn_bin

Graycap23 said:

It is about time Adobe woke up:

The beginning of the end for Adobe's Flash

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By David Goldman @CNNMoneyTech November 10, 2011: 6:16 AM ET

Adobe will no longer develop its mobile Flash app, though it will continue to support it for Android users.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Adobe is abandoning its Flash software for mobile devices. Don't panic: For consumers, this is a good move.

Adobe is moving away from its 15-year-old technology to instead embrace a universal standard for displaying rich media on the Web. Shifting to HTML5 -- the new, broadly accepted Web standard -- is a bold move for Adobe. Many smartphone and tablet owners, particularly those with i... and iPads, have not been able to view media coded for Flash on their mobile devices.

Flash is a type of software called "middleware," an add-on extension to the browser that allows rich content like video and games to be viewed. HTML5, by contrast, allows developers to embed that content right into a website without the need for middleware. That means video and geolocation services can be baked in. HTML5 has the added benefit of allowing content to be viewed offline.

In April last year, Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500)'s then-CEO Steve Jobs ranted about Flash on Apple's website, saying the software is "closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn't support touch-based devices." He said iPhones and iPads would never support Flash because "new open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too)."

He suggested that Adobe (ADBE) focus on creating HTML5 tools instead of Flash. A year and a half later, Adobe appears to have admitted that Jobs was right.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/10/technology/adobe_flash/index.htm?source=cnn_bin

oh jeez, they wait till the guy kicked the can to give him his props

Discussed somewhat on this thread, with a healthy dose of jacking, : http://prince.org/msg/100/369816

Here's the thing:

There is no doubt Apple (aka, Steve Jobs) was influential in hastening of the adoption of HTML5 and the current exodus from Flash technologies. But, after having read up on the subject more, it seems Jobs was very influential in ushering in this new age where the once ubiquitous technology now appears to be on the downward slide.

Any fantasies of the Google Android somehow ensuring Flash's continued use are null and void at this point. Adobe themselves have admitted that rather than running video and media rich content on Flash, requiring software-rendering (aka, your CPU has to work much harder because the GPU and video-specific hardware on your devices aren't utilized in Flash) simply isn't a good solution. The solution is to run this content on software that does utilize the hardware on these devices (hardware-rendering). Apple has challenged Flash since roughly 2007 to show them demonstration of Flash running smoothly on any device...any device, and have been largely unimpressed with the results. Last week, Adobe finally conceded.

HOWEVER, I'm not sure this means the complete end of Flash. Adobe is a smart enough company... a brilliant company actually (I'm speaking of the legacy Macromedia contingent here), and have given us amazing developer products like Dreamweaver, Flash (yes, Flash), Premiere, and of course, Photoshop. It would not surprise me if the future editions of Dreamweaver become the best solution to write HTML5 webpapges---if they aren't already. Today I use Dreamweaver and Photoshop constantly--I could never imagine NOT using those products. Perhaps Adobe will release a future version of Flash that addresses these performance issues and goes from software-to-harware rendering. But then again, there are so many other reasons why Flash is being migrated away from that I'm not sure Adobe would put in the effort.

And to think, some folks are saying all this stems from Jobs being pissed that Adobe originally would not port Photoshop and Premiere to mac back in the day.