Adobe: Apple Won in Flash Player on Mobile Devices Battle

Chambers discusses five main points as to why Adobe made the decision to kill Flash Player on mobile devices:

• Apple had no plans to allow Flash Player on iOS
• Flash Player on mobile devices would never reach the same level as it already is on the desktop
• "Just to be very clear on this. No matter what we did, the Flash Player was not going to be available on Apple's iOS anytime in the foreseeable future."
• HTML5 provides the same level of features that Flash Player provides on the desktop
• Mobile technologies, while still improving, already support HTML5 much better than Flash
• "Our goal has always been to obtain the same level of ubiquity for the Flash Player on mobile browsers, but, at the end of the day, it is something that did not, and was not going to happen."
• Desktop users are different than mobile users
• Mobile devices have smaller displays, are generally slower and have worse network performance, different class of operating systems, and have a tight integration between an app store and the OS
• Using an app store to discover new content (such as games) removes the purpose of Flash Player on the web
• Developing for mobile web browsers
• "Developing the Flash Player for mobile browsers has proven to require much more resources than we anticipated."
• Working to develop a plugin for a mobile web browser with different hardware and software on each device has proven difficult for Adobe
• Removing Flash Player on mobile allows for more resources to develop HTML5
• Discontinuing Flash Player on mobile devices will allow Adobe to dedicate more tools and resources to building and developing on the HTML5 platform

Chambers finishes the post off by reaffirming that Adobe AIR will continue to operate as usual. He also states that Adobe has strong dedication for Flash Player on the desktop and is "actively working on the next Flash Player version."