Reports of the Death of Flash Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Adobe recently announced they would no longer be developing their mobile Flash Player. Developers and technology media immediately went into speculation hyperdrive, proclaiming the death of Flash and forecasting doom for Flash development.

Notwithstanding the complete hash Adobe made of the PR, the speculation was based on a misunderstanding of the approach Adobe is taking to Flash and to its overall business strategy. The news for developers like us and content owners like our clients is actually very good. In dropping the Mobile Flash Player, Adobe have merely recognised that, for now, apps are winning over the browser for the presentation of mobile content.

The Mobile Flash Player was a tool that allowed Flash movies (swfs) to be played in mobile browsers. The problem was, not many content owners and developers wanted to use the mobile player to display their content in the browser. Demand, instead, was for tools that facilitated mobile app development in Flash which could be published across mobile platforms - iOS and Android in particular.

In making the announcement, Adobe emphasised the major shift in their strategy towards providing tools that faciliate content creation:

Moving forward, Adobe will offer customers the ability to make, manage, measure and monetize content and applications across all devices...Important elements include:

• Focusing Flash resources on delivering the most advanced PC web experiences, including gaming and premium video, as well as mobile apps
• Enhancing digital publishing solutions to empower media companies to profit through publishing their content to any screen

Adobe will be placing more focus on the tools developers like us use to make games, apps and content. We use tools like Adobe's Packager and AIR which allow us to develop applications in Flash and package them for multiple platforms including iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, web and desktop. In developing in Flash and repackaging for multiple platforms, we're able to deliver efficiencies in time and cost for multi-platform development.

In their shift to focussing on digital media content tools, Adobe have thrown their weight behind content owners and creators. They've seen that their strongest revenue source lies not providing tools to display video on mobiles but in providing the tools that support digital content creation. So while the mobile Flash Player has met it's demise, Flash as a development tool has just gotten stronger. To hijack a phrase: Flash is dead. Long live Flash.