Adobe axes Flash for mobile

After what seems like a long and sometimes bitter battle with the mobile industry, software developer Adobe® has reportedly pulled the plug on its Flash® platform for smartphones and tablet computers, opting instead to focus on HTML5 and other applications for mobile.

According to a report from technology news provider ZDNet, sources close to Adobe say the company's work with Flash for the mobile capacity will be limited to helping developers package native applications with Adobe AIR® for app stores. But the development of a Flash Player for mobile browsers has been effectively ceased.

Flash has been a standard format for video and animation for quite some time, but Adobe has struggled to find support in the mobile market -- largely based on objections from Apple®, which refused to adopt Flash for its smartphones and tablets.

Other mobile platforms, like the Android™ and BlackBerry® operating systems, have offered Flash support, but Apple, which has urged web developers to use the open standard HTML5 instead, seems to have prevailed in this case. According to a CNET report, Adobe will continue to offer bug patches and other updates for its existing mobile platforms, but it won't release new versions of Flash Player.