During our interview with Danny Winokur, VP and GM, Platforms at Adobe, we discussed in detail how Adobe felt it was in its strategic interest to focus on Flash for desktop browsers and aid in extreme graphics and premium video. Similarly, it outlined the plan to stop focus on Flash for mobile devices and instead make best use of AIR runtime environment.
In June, with the announcement of Jellybean by Google, Adobe had set out a deadline of August 15, as the date when it would cease to stop support for Flash for mobile devices. The day has arrived and as expected developer circles are reacting in all sorts of ways about it.
Going forward, new devices that are not shipped with Flash will not be able to install it. According to Adobe, Flash Player will not be certified for any device OS beyond Android 4.0.x.
These developments hint at a more standards driven environment which would also be conducive for open web platforms such as HTML5, and web apps increasing in presence on mobile devices. Besides, there are also projects such Mozilla’s Firefox OS that is built entirely around web technologies.
