Adobe kills Flash for mobile
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Software company's mobile strategy to focus on HTML5 and the Air client. Plus, restructuring triggers 750 job cuts
Adobe will no longer develop new versions of its Flash multimedia platform for mobile browsers and operating systems, the company revealed in an email to its developer community.
The email, seen by ZDNet, says that Adobe will continue to support the current configurations of Flash for Android devices and the PlayBook configurations "critical bug fixes and security updates".
However, Adobe's mobile content strategy will now focus on supporting mobile applications with its Air runtime client, and an increased investment in web protocol HTML5.
The news comes as Adobe launched a organisational restructuring to focus on digital media and marketing. This involves "the elimination of approximately 750 full-time positions primarily in North America and Europe," Adobe said in a statement.
The new strategy will focus on helping media companies make money from their content and deliver it "to any screen". The increasing emphasis on HTML5 will be driven through Adobe's tools such as Dreamweaver, Adobe Edge and PhoneGap, an open-source development tool for building apps in HTML5 and javascript which Adobe added through the recent acquisition of Nitobi.
"Our mission is to produce the world's content and maximize the impact of that content,” said Shantanu Narayen, Adobe president and CEO.
Adobe reaffirmed its previous target for fourth quarter revenues, saying it is on course to bring in between $1.075 billion and $1.125 billion.
