I thought all of you might find this really interesting. This is actually
really amazing news for us in the blind community!
This is the first step to dealing with some of the extraordinarily difficult
issues we've all had at times in accessing important content on the web!
This is truly a wonderful step! woohoo!
Smiles,
Cara :)
---
Adobe discontinues mobile Flash Player
Sylvie Barak
11/9/2011 3:51 PM EST
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Adobe Systems Inc. announced Wednesday (Nov. 9) it will
restructure its operations, a move which will result in layoffs for some 750
employees and the discontinuation of Flash Player for mobile devices. The
upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook will
be the last update to the software.
In a shocking 180-degree twist, Adobe said in a blog post it would no longer be
working to adapt Flash Player for mobile to new browsers, OS versions or
different device configurations, and that it would instead focus on building
applications for mobile and investment in HTML5 - long considered a rival
standard.
“HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases
exclusively,” wrote Danny Winokur, vice president and GM of Adobe’s interactive
development team, adding that this now made HTML5 superior in terms of creating
and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.
“We are excited about this, and will continue our work with key players in the
HTML community, including Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM, to drive HTML5
innovation they can use to advance their mobile browsers,” he added.
Winokur said Adobe would now urge developers to continue packaging native apps
with Adobe AIR instead.
“The announcement to no longer develop Flash Players for mobile devices is an
admission by Adobe not so much about the superiority of HTML5, but more about
HTML5 momentum and the incredible amount of resources it takes Adobe to
maintain the Flash player for so many different chips sets and mobile OSes that
change generations two to three times per year,” said analyst Jack Gold of Gold
Associates.
Indeed, in the mobile space where OS versions and chips change so quickly, Gold
says Flash for mobile has been a “resource nightmare” for Adobe. “We could have
seen this coming,” he added.
The war of words over whether Flash was right for mobile has been raging for
years now, with Steve Jobs and the Apple Inc. camp firmly opposed to Adobe’s
offerings on the basis of their inherent instability and battery drainage. So
adamant was Jobs, in fact, that he famously wrote a 1500 word missive about
what he saw as the platform’s failings, subsequently banning it from iOS
altogether.
Some see today’s announcement by Adobe as surrender and an acknowledgment of
defeat, whilst others see the move as a simple repackaging and rebranding
exercise, as long as Adobe Air (Adobe Integrated Runtime) lives on.
AIR-a cross-platform runtime environment for building rich internet
applications using Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, HTML, and Ajax-can be run as
desktop applications or on mobile devices. The runtime supports installable
applications on Windows, Linux, Mac OS and some mobile operating systems such
as iOS and Android.
“AIR wraps Flash and runs outside the browser, so it’s not subject to the
browser restrictions,” technology pundit and software expert Simon Bisson told
EE Times adding that a lot of Flash’s problems had been down to the browser
sandbox. Bisson claimed Android Flash, for example, was let down by its lack of
touch capabilities for the browser - two point only.
AIR, however, is multi touch and allows much more hardware access from outside
the browser, making it easier to manage resources like battery too. A good
example of AIR in action is the BlackBerry PlayBook UI, which is all AIR.
Adobe's mobile future up in the AIR
AIR has already seen a fair measure of success, with apps based on the platform
available not only on iOS, but also at the top of the Android market. “It’s not
as obvious as Flash, as it looks like just another app, and Adobe has now
launched the app-bundled runtime for Android, which is even less visible,” said
Bisson.
AIR’s low level hardware integration also means better GPU support and Flash’s
3D libraries are much more advanced than WebGLs, meaning it might be the
logical choice to do 3D in AIR, especially with support from frameworks like
Marmalade and Unity.
“A lot of what Flash does HTML can’t yet do,” he added, calling Flash more of a
test pilot trying things out that would later end up getting integrated into
HTML, like DRM for video for example, something HTML5 is still unable to do.
Thus, for applications like Netflix, for instance, AIR would still very much be
a go-to market.
“It's never really been a matter of competing between the two (HTML5 and
Flash), though some people do put it in those terms,” Bisson admitted.
“Apple may be gloating, but it’s not so much that HTML5 is better, as it is
that Adobe just isn’t capable of providing the amount of resource that an
open-sourced, standards-based approach can offer,” added Gold, saying the
rivalry was more akin to the more popular VHS winning over technically superior
Beta all over again.
“This will accelerate the deployment of HTML5 content, not just for mobile, but
also for PC/Mac platforms,” Gold posited.
Bisson, meanwhile, said he believed this might only hold true for in-browser
use. “Outside the browser, it's more complex,” he said, saying most developers
were using HTML5 for web anyway and that Flash for advertising had never really
made it to mobile. Indeed, Adobe recently announced the acquisition of Natobi,
creator of PhoneGap, giving the firm the opportunity to provide tools to
developers to quickly create HTML5 content for phone ads that’s supported by
virtually every mobile browser.
“I just don't buy it as surrender,” said Bisson adding, “change of strategy?
Yes. And, an unwillingness to dumb down the capabilities of the platform for
mobile browsers, which still lag behind the desktop considerably.”
Even on the desktop, however, some see a trend of developers moving away from
developing rich content in Flash in favor of Javascript, CSS, and HTML5, which
has native support for video.
On the other hand, Adobe has released tools that will allow mobile developers
to write a program on a single platform and deploy it across several major
mobile platforms, including Android, iOS, WindowsPhone and the BlackBerry OS.
“AIR becomes direct competition for native frameworks that way,” explained
Bisson, adding that the simplicity of writing something once in AIR and being
able to deploy it across several operating systems was a major strength. Others
have argued, however, that the method does engender a certain lack of app
performance, though how significant this performance loss is remains to be
properly documented.
To most, however, the major concern with Adobe’s announcement will be that all
the Flash content on the web will now no longer be guaranteed to run on future
mobile devices and may now cause a split for web developers having to code
sites separately for mobile and PC.
“We don’t believe Adobe will be able to offer a simple ‘switch’ in its tools to
optimally create/support both with one development environment – others have
tried this approach and it’s not worked out that well,” said Gold.
Meanwhile, Winokur promised Adobe would “of course continue to provide critical
bug fixes and security updates for existing device configurations. We will
also allow our source code licensees to continue working on and release their
own implementations.”
---
View my Online Portfolio at:
http://www.onemodelplace.com/CaraQuinn
Follow me on Twitter!
https://twitter.com/ModelCara
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"MacVisionaries" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
