Steve Jobs Was Right: Adobe Halts Flash for Mobile Devices

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Steve Jobs Was Right: Adobe Halts Flash for Mobile Devices

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SAN JOSE, Calif. – In a stunning move, software developer Adobe is reported to be throwing in the towel when it comes to getting multimedia platform Flash to run on mobile devices.

According to a report Tuesday on ZDNet, the company is halting development on future mobile versions of Flash for Android and Research In Motion's PlayBook, among other mobile operating systems.

The move would be a major blow to Android device makers, who have long touted Flash compatibility as a key competitive advantage over Apple's iPhone and iPad.

It also would mark a posthumous vindication for former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who took a controversial stand by not supporting Flash on Apple's mobile products.

"We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations," ZDNet quoted Adobe as telling developers. "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."

Instead, Adobe will focus on tools that allow Flash developers to create mobile apps by packaging their code to run on Adobe's AIR platform, according to the report.

Although Adobe managed to get Flash running on Android devices, as well as the PlayBook, the performance was typically slow and inconsistent even on devices that supported it.

The move comes amid a broader restructuring at Adobe, which announced earlier Tuesday that it was cutting 750 jobs and resorting its priorities.
 
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Steve Jobs Vindicated; Adobe Reportedly Abandoning Mobile Flash Plug-In

Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) is being hammered this morning, with the shares off more than 10% ahead of the open as traders react to a slew of negative reports – including the end of development for its mobile Flash Player plug-in. Specifically, the company announced that it’s cutting 750 jobs and taking a pre-tax charge of $87 million to $94 million in the fourth-quarter as part of a restructuring plan.

As a result of the charges, Adobe lowered its fourth-quarter earnings forecast to a range of 30 cents to 38 cents per share, down from a range of 41 cents to 50 cents per share. The firm expects revenue to remain untouched, reiterating prior guidance for sales in a range of $1.08 billion to $1.13 billion.

The most striking announcement, however, came as reports surfaced that Adobe will abandon development of its Flash plug-in for mobile devices. As reported by ZDNet last night, the company has prepared an email to its partners stating “We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations.” The email continues, “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.”

The report goes on to state that Adobe will focus on helping partners package media in Adobe’s AIR platform. Should this report pan out, it could strip Android manufacturers of a significant bragging right on Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iOS and posthumously vindicate former Apple CEO Steve Jobs. You may remember that Jobs created quite a stir by deciding not to support Adobe Flash on iOS devices.

Returning to ADBE shares, the stock is not high on Wall Street‘s shopping list. According to data from Thomson/First Call, ADBE has attracted 12 Buys, 12 Holds, and three Sell ratings.

Meanwhile, the stock currently sports an average 12-month price target of $31.

Options traders are also wary of ADBE’s future. For instance, November call open interest totals 12,270 contracts versus put open interest of 17,161 contracts. The result is a bearishly skewed front-month put/call open interest ratio of 1.39.

Taking a closer look at ADBE’s open interest configuration reveals that peak November call open interest totals 3,218 contracts at the 30 strike. Another 2,856 calls reside at the November 29 strike, while 2,428 contracts reside at the 32 call. On the put side, peak open interest totals a hefty 7,098 contracts at the November 29 strike. Other put strikes of note include the November 30, with 2,036 contracts open, and the November 23, with open interest of 2,264 contracts.

From a technical perspective, ADBE’s reversal comes at an time when the shares are battling overhead resistance at their 200-day moving average. Furthermore, the equity was also attempting to reclaim round-number support at $30. Heading into the open, ADBE trading nearly 10% lower, placing the stock just above $27. This area is crucial for the security, as the stock’s 50-day trendline resides just below at $26.17. A breach of this moving average could signal additional losses for ADBE over the intermediate term.
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Daily ADBE chart with 50-day and 200-day moving averages

Article from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/josephh...e-reportedly-abandoning-mobile-flash-plug-in/
 
San Jose firm also restructuring because of disappointing demand for new software

Adobe Systems Inc. shares fell in extended trading after the company said it will cut 750 jobs as it lessens its focus on older products and shifts investment to programs for digital publishing and Web advertising.

Adobe, the largest maker of graphic-design software, is facing competition from Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. and an industry shift away from its Flash technology for Internet programming. To cope with the changes, the San Jose, California- based company is adapting its products for the increasingly popular HTML5 programming language and software for cloud computing, which is delivered over the Internet.

The company said it is channeling research, sales and marketing investments into digital media and marketing in its next fiscal year, and expects less licensing revenue from software for corporate servers. As a result, Adobe said sales will increase 4 percent to 6 percent next year. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected sales to increase 9 percent to $4.53 billion next year.

The company is overhauling the way it sells its most popular software, called Creative Suite, to spur more frequent purchases of programs like Photoshop and Dreamweaver. As more customers seek to buy and use software over the Internet, Adobe plans to release a software package called Creative Cloud early next year.
 
I think their thought process is, all non-professionals should use adobe photoshop elements, or lightroom. All "professional" users/companies would be using the full photoshop. I worked in places that didn't blink an eye dropping a few grand every year on the full design suite. Although, when you multiply that across a lot of users, the licensing fees surely add up.

For those who want to do a huge portion of what ps can do, gimp is a great free solution
 
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Adobe Had It Coming: The Long, Slow Goodbye of Mobile Flash

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The Motorola Xoom shipped with the underwhelming, buggy beta version of Flash for Android tablets. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

It’s all over.
On Wednesday morning, Adobe delivered the eulogy for its multi-media Flash platform for mobile, stating the company would no longer invest resources in porting its once-indispensable cross-browser technology to smartphones and tablets.
It’s a startling admission of failure from a company that vehemently defended Flash and its mobile strategy in the face of Apple’s refusal to allow it on the iPhone and iPad. Adobe even took on Steve Jobs in a war of words over Flash’s viability as a mobile platform, all in the public domain.
But the writing was on the wall for Flash years ago, and Adobe knew it. With no Flash announcements to be heard at its Adobe Max conference earlier this year and with the company slowly beefing up its toolkit of Flash alternatives, Wednesday’s move is in step with Adobe’s broader strategy of migrating its loyal Flash developer base to a new era, one where mobile platforms reign supreme.
Gone are the days of new Android and BlackBerry devices bragging of Flash compatibility as a way to trump superiority over iOS devices. And gone are the days of seeing the web as a dominant platform for Flash code, with Adobe pushing packaging tools like AIR to convert Flash code to native Android, Windows Phone or iOS languages. And while the days of desktop Flash aren’t yet over, some see the death throes of mobile Flash as a harbinger of things to come for PCs.
Adobe did not respond to requests for comment.
The Glory Days

It wasn’t always like this for Flash. During the browser wars of the mid-to-late 90s, Netscape and Microsoft were battling for market share with their respective offerings, Navigator and Internet Explorer.
But the increased competition led to compatibility issues for web publishers across the browser options; in order to “out-do” one another, Netscape and Microsoft would build proprietary features into their browser software updates, “extending” the HTML standards which keep web sites running smoothly for end users. The result was inconsistency across browsers, screwing things up for web developers and end users alike.
Then came the end-all, be-all solution: Flash.
“Macromedia built this technology, and it took off,” said Al Hilwa, IDC research analyst, in an interview. “Through help of a plug-in, all of the sudden you could deliver great animation, video, whatever you wanted, wherever you wanted.”
As Flash became ubiquitous over the next decade, Adobe saw an opportunity. Then known mostly as a “printer company,” according to Hilwa, Adobe acquired Flash in 2005, and leveraged the spread of the platform to further its own suite of developer-centered products.
“Flash was a means to an end to sell Adobe’s building tools,” said Hilwa. “The theory was, the more people have Flash, the more coders will develop using the company’s toolkits.”
The theory rang true. Flash spread across myriad hardware platforms, from desktops to TV set-top boxes. Adobe’s reach was seemingly limitless, and as the oughts progressed, the company envisioned the reach spreading to mobile devices, one of the fastest growing technology segments in the world.

Growing Up Too Fast

Though the platform became a massive success, according to some, Adobe’s explosive growth could have been its own undoing.
“Adobe wanted Flash everywhere,” said Carlos Icaza — a former Adobe employee who created Corona, a competing product, after leaving the company. “They had the perfect opportunity to work extremely well on iPhones and other mobile devices, but they wanted it across every device,” Icaza said. “It spread them far too thin.”
At the same time, Icaza says that Adobe wasn’t worried about the iPhone when Apple debuted the high-end device in 2007. Along with most others naysayers at Apple’s initial device release, Adobe thought the iPhone would fit into a niche product category, an expensive, touch-based toy for consumers with deep pockets. Instead of focusing on smartphones, Icaza says, Adobe looked to getting Flash installed on phones at the other end of the market: cheap feature phones.
Of course, Adobe’s Apple prediction turned out not to be true; the iPhone is one of the best-selling smartphones in the world and now defines the category. Apple sold over 4 million iPhone 4S devices in three days over its opening weekend, the most successful iPhone product launch in the company’s history. Apple’s iPad makes up 97.2 percent of tablet browsing worldwide, and iOS makes up 61.5 percent of mobile web browsing total.
After seeing the runaway success of the iPhone, Adobe tried to angle its way in with Apple, aiming to bring a stable mobile version of Flash to the company’s iOS-powered devices.

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The BlackBerry PlayBook, a device that was heavily marketed on its Flash compatibility. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Adobe ultimately fell short. After years of trying to work with Adobe to bring Flash to the iPhone and iPod, Steve Jobs gave up on Flash completely, nixing the idea of the platform running on any of Apple’s iOS devices. Jobs summarized his opinions famously in a 2010 memo published to Apple’s web site, claiming the platform was made “for the PC era — for PC’s and mice.”
Jobs continued:

Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low-power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards — all areas where Flash falls short.”​
Indeed, despite Adobe’s multiple attempts to breathe life into Flash on other mobile devices — namely, Android and BlackBerry OS, two of Apple’s main competitors — the company hasn’t delivered. In Wired.com’s testing of multiple Flash-compatible devices, choppiness and browser crashes were common.
“Adobe can’t do it because Flash is a resource hog,” said Icaza. “It’s a battery drain, and it’s unreliable on mobile web browsers.”
To compensate, Adobe introduced alternative toolkits to Flash developers, including programs like Adobe AIR, Adobe Flex, and Flash Builder. As recently as June, the company rolled out updates to Flex and debuted Flash Builder.
But again, Adobe tried to be too many things to too many people. The wealth of toolkit options for developers meant a lack of focus in company resources.
“When you have a big company like Adobe, often the right hand doesn’t talk to the left hand,” said Icaza.
That meant continuously failing to deliver a usable product to companies relying on Adobe. Flash was supposed to debut on Android tablets earlier this year with the Motorola Xoom, but Adobe could only push out an highly unstable Beta version of Flash to ship with the device.
A New Beginning

Rather than allow Apple to give its followers the satisfaction of serving Adobe a huge slice of humble pie with Wednesday’s announcement, the company is using the opportunity to pivot in a different development direction, and hopefully concentrate its resources more effectively.
That means a move to creating different sets of tools that aren’t Flash-centric. Namely, tools focused on helping developers use the HTML5 set of open web standards, which, combined with Javascript and CSS, are capable of stunning animations and video playback without any plugins needed.
“HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively,” wrote Danny Winokur, VP of interactive development at Adobe in Wednesday’s blog post. “This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.”
Adobe’s shift to embracing the HTML5 set of open standards more fully is a twofold tacit admission. First, that “Flash as a plugin on mobile browsers hasn’t happened, and it isn’t likely to happen,” said Gartner Research analyst Ray Valdes in an interview. “It’s locked out of iOS, and slow to adopt on other platforms.”
Developers seem to agree. “Nobody is really building mobile flash web sites,” said Flash developer Dan Florio in an interview. “You’d be stupid to not make it in HTML5.”
And second, it’s an acknowledgement that the shift to HTML5 is real.
“It’s not just Adobe,” Valdes says. “It’s Microsoft, Google, Facebook and every small web-centric venture out there. The chips fell into place a while back, and this is finally how it’s playing out.”
“Adobe has an opportunity to help developers with the fragmented nature of HTML5,” Valdes says. “The thing is, isn’t any one thing. It’s a collection of about 100 different specifications in varying degrees of maturity.”
So the difficulty for developers, then, is the inconsistency of user experience across browsers and operating systems. One has to test across many rapidly changing software and hardware combinations. “If Adobe could deliver a good solution, they have a great business opportunity here.”
It’s now up to Adobe — a large, slow-moving entity with thousands of employees and a sprawling product line, some of which are in competition with one another — to leverage their new position as an HTML5 proponent.
Tuesday’s announcement that the company would be laying off 750 employees (in unspecified departments) could signal a organizational sea change made to deal with the new direction. Carlos Icaza claimed a number of his former Adobe acquaintances on the Flex team had their positions off-shored, along with some in the Flash Authoring division.
“The talent is certainly there,” Icaza said, “but the alignment of the talent will take time.”

Article from: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/11/adobe-mobile-flash-dead/
 
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