Adobe to cease mobile Flash development.

http://news.yahoo.com/adobe-cuts-flash-development-conceding-apple-152054858.html

Basically Adobe realizes it can't win against the fight against HTML 5 in the mobile arena, so they're stopping mobile Flash development. This news holds special interest to Opera Mini and Opera Mobile.

@ People asking for Flash on Opera Mini: you can stop wishing for Flash to be added to Opera Mini. Adobe has shut the door. @Everyone else: If you see anyone asking for Flash to be added to Opera Mini, link them to this post here.

@ People who have Flash available for use in Opera Mobile: I would expect Flash to removed at some point. This is your heads-up.

Full news release:

(Reuters) - Adobe Systems Inc is halting development of its popular Flash Player for use in mobile browsers, essentially admitting defeat to rival Apple Inc in a long-running battle over Web standards.

The decision by the software maker, whose shares fell more than 11 percent, means that Web developers will probably stop using its Flash tools to produce video, websites and applications for delivery over mobile browsers.

That would be a relief for tens of millions of iPhones and iPad users whose browsers are not capable of viewing content built in Flash, but it could hurt sales of Adobe's tools for developing websites.

Instead, Adobe said on Wednesday that it would focus on selling tools for website developers that use an emerging set of Internet standards known as HTML5, which Apple has long promoted.

Adobe announced the shift after saying late on Tuesday that it planned to lay off about 7 percent of its staff and warning investors that revenue growth would slow over the coming year as it shifts to a new sales model.

While the difference between Flash and HTML5 might seem like inside baseball for the average person, it was of keen interest to legendary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died recently.

Jobs refused to build Flash technology into his company's mobile browsers, insisting that they offered an inferior browsing experience. Adobe refuted those claims and sought to pressure Apple to incorporate Flash into iPhones and iPads.

HTML5 has taken off since Apple refused to adopt Flash because developers who used Adobe's proprietary technology did not want to miss out on getting their content viewed by iPhone and iPad users. The newer technology also uses open standards, which means that a single company like Adobe does not have control over the technology.

"Steve Jobs kicked the industry forward a notch toward HTML5," said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis. "Open-source always wins, even it doesn't mean innovators are going to make money on it."

Adobe conceded in a blog item posted early on Wednesday that HTML5 had become the preferred standard for creating mobile browser content.

"HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively," Adobe Vice President Danny Winokur said in the blog. "This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms."

He said the company would continue to invest in Flash technology for use in mobile applications that would run on devices through its Adobe AIR platform. To access those applications, a user must first install Adobe's AIR software.

Shares of Adobe were down 11.1 percent at $27.04 in morning trading.

I hope they do not terminate flash for desktop as html5 video cannot be watched in true full screen like flash.

Originally posted by wikipedian:

I hope they do not terminate flash for desktop as html5 video cannot be watched in true full screen like flash.

It is however really easy to copy the video URL and play it in e.g. VLC. Besides I prefer full page since full screen is a separate option with F11.

Also I kinda like flash on Android phones. Plus, I doubt Flash for desktop will go away anytime soon. If they do developers can just switch over to silverlight. Also, html5 video allow content downloads unlike flash. I.E. they allow the video to be downloaded.

Originally posted by wikipedian:

I hope they do not terminate flash for desktop as html5 video cannot be watched in true full screen like flash.

They aren't. Read http://news.softpedia.com/news/Flash-Is-Dead-Long-Live-Flash-on-the-Desktop-and-Mobile-Devices-233521.shtml

@wikipedian

If Flash for desktop goes bye bye then whats the point of using Silverlight then? There aren't that much dev who even use Silverlight to begin with. There are some sites who use silverlight but its much easier to get done with your plain PHP, HTML, CSS and AJAX Library. So in then end Silverlight will die out.

As an aside, Silverlight will likely disappear as well: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/will-there-be-a-silverlight-6-and-does-it-matter/11180

As, Frenzie has pointed Silverlight is bound to die, not a big secret if you think it was made by Microsoft to have its own rip-off of "Adobe Flash".

The only logical problem I can see with end of Flash Mobile platform is that there are billions video/audio files on the web witch carry the ext, .flv. The downside of HTML5 Video player is that it requires 2 sources an OGG and MP4 which I don't like since it requires to host 2 files on the server thous consuming more space. I am still not sure why it was done in such way, will try to look into that as of interest.

Also @wikipedian I forgot to mention if Flash support for desktop ends which I dough since then we will have YouTube and every one else on Adobe's ass not to mention sites running fully via Flash. In any case browsers can support videos by native just as long as you have proper plug-in ex; Quick Time for Mac/Windows or Windows Media Player for Windows, and there ya go no flash needed.

Originally posted by redrop:

In any case browsers can support videos by native just as long as you have proper plug-in ex; Quick Time for Mac/Windows or Windows Media Player for Windows, and there ya go no flash needed.

Why is there any need of a QuickTime/Windows Media Player - there are WebM and Ogg Theora codecs already.

Yep, forgot to mention that from last post. I still don't like how HTML5 deals with videos requiring 2 files that's the primary downside of it.

Cause Internet Explorer 9 use mp4 (h64) for videos while the rest of the browsers (Opera, Chrome, Firefox) use .ogg format. Also, heard that Chrome is dropping mp4 support in favor of webm so the two prevalent formats is mp4 and webm.

Originally posted by wikipedian:

Cause Internet Explorer 9 use mp4 (h64) for videos while the rest of the browsers (Opera, Chrome, Firefox) use .ogg format.

I think even Safari supports H.264 and/or MP4 only. Opera, Firefox and Chrome, also support WebM in addition to Ogg Theora (.ogg).
In the end WebM is going to win as the market share of browsers supporting WebM will be greater to those supporting H.264 -just waiting when IE drops below the 25% mark; probably within the next 18 months.

Internet Explorer levels will never reach below 20% as 1. It's the default browser of Windows and 2. With Windows 8, Internet Explorer is currently the only browser that will run in the start screen in full Metro (similiar to Safari on the iPad). Other browsers throw you back to the desktop.

Originally posted by wikipedian:

Internet Explorer levels will never reach below 20%

I don't agree with you. Is that Metro-ed IE really good? No wonder how nicely Microsoft might decorate IE - IE would still lag behind. IE doesn't have any ad-blocking extensions, no themes/skins to apply and customize it and lots more things are missing in IE. Intelligent people will never use IE whether the full version or slim 'Metro' version.

Originally posted by Swapnil99pro:

Originally posted by wikipedian:

Internet Explorer levels will never reach below 20%

IE doesn't have any ad-blocking extensions

Yes they do. Its called Tracking Protection List and its a rudimentary ad-blocker.

Originally posted by Swapnil99pro:

Originally posted by wikipedian:

Internet Explorer levels will never reach below 20%

...no themes/skins to apply and customize it

Why do we need themes originaligional interface is good as is.

Originally posted by Swapnil99pro:

Originally posted by wikipedian:

Internet Explorer levels will never reach below 20%

lots more things are missing in IE

Like? Spell checker? Internet Explorer 10 have it. HTML5? Internet Explorer 9 and above support it. CSS3? Internet Explorer 10 and above.

Also, how many people switch from the default browser? Microsoft have positioned Internet Explorer 10 (Metro version) like Apple did with the "i devices." It is the main browser of Windows 8 and all Metro apps will call upon it instead of the third party browser (I think).

Originally posted by wikipedian:

Yes they do. Its called Tracking Protection List and its a rudimentary ad-blocker.

I know - but it doesn't always work. Go to html5test.com in IE 9 with Tracking protection enabled - you can still see some ads.

Originally posted by wikipedian:

Like? Spell checker? Internet Explorer 10 have it. HTML5? Internet Explorer 9 and above support it. CSS3? Internet Explorer 10 and above.

I know what IE has and what it doesn't. Can you have Speed Dial in IE? No - possible for Chrome and Firefox by extensions while Apple copied it as Top Sites from the original inventor - Opera. So Opera, Safari, Firefox and Chrome - in on or the other way have Speed Dial. IE just can't.

Can you tweak the User Interface of IE from within IE? Can you sync IE with another computer also running IE without use of Xmarks? Can you set per-site preferences? Can you install security updates for IE without restarting the computer? Can you set plug-ins to on-demand only setting? Can you apply UserCSS and UserJS to pages?

Stop being an IE voter.

Originally posted by Swapnil99pro:

Originally posted by wikipedian:

Yes they do. Its called Tracking Protection List and its a rudimentary ad-blocker.

I know - but it doesn't always work. Go to html5test.com in IE 9 with Tracking protection enabled - you can still see some ads.

Originally posted by wikipedian:

Like? Spell checker? Internet Explorer 10 have it. HTML5? Internet Explorer 9 and above support it. CSS3? Internet Explorer 10 and above.

I know what IE has and what it doesn't. Can you have Speed Dial in IE? No - possible for Chrome and Firefox by extensions while Apple copied it as Top Sites from the original inventor - Opera. So Opera, Safari, Firefox and Chrome - in on or the other way have Speed Dial. IE just can't.

Can you tweak the User Interface of IE from within IE? Can you sync IE with another computer also running IE without use of Xmarks? Can you set per-site preferences? Can you install security updates for IE without restarting the computer? Can you set plug-ins to on-demand only setting? Can you apply UserCSS and UserJS to pages?

Stop being an IE voter.

Umm just go to about:tabs the new tabs page and its sort of like speed dial. I'm just saying that IE9 is a decent browser and its number would not be below 20%.

Guys, can we get back on topic - which is to say, mobile Flash (or at least Flash). If you want to discuss HTML 5 video and/or IE market share, start a new thread.