Is Desktop Flash Fading Away?
Thursday, November 17th, 2011Last week, Adobe announced that it was abandoning mobile Flash. Now, two new developments raise questions about whether desktop Flash will eventually suffer a similar fate.
Adobe has submitted the code for its Flex framework, which is based on Flash, to the Apache Software Foundation. Flex, a Software Development Kit that is used to build cross-platform Rich Internet Applications for browser-based Flash as well as standalone apps, is expected to be managed by the Apache Foundation as a new, open-source project. The SDK has been an open-source project, but under Adobe’s management. The Apache Foundation still needs to vote on whether to make Flex a formal project.
HTML5 ‘Best Technology’ for Enterprise
On its Official Flex Team Blog, Adobe Flex Product Manager Deepa Subramaniam wrote in the past week that the company was still committed to Flex, but that “the technology landscape for application development is rapidly changing.”
Over the long term, Subramaniam said, “HTML5 will be the best technology for enterprise application development.”
In its announcement last week, Adobe said it would no longer develop mobile Flash, and would focus on tools and related technology for HTML5. HTML5 does not require a browser plug-in, as Flash does, for browsers supporting the standards-based technology.
In the announcement on its Adobe Blogs, Interactive Development Vice President and General Manager Danny Winokur wrote that his company “will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work on new mobile device configurations.”
In his statement, Winokur noted that HTML5 is now supported on all major mobile devices, “in some cases exclusively” — a reference to Apple’s devices, where Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs decreed that HTML5 was superior to Flash. HTML5, Winokur added, is “the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across multiple platforms.”
Long for This World?
The…
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