Adobe discontinues Flash on mobile devices.

Flash has been the dominant animation software of the internet for many years. However its processor and memory hungry nature means it is not suitable for use on mobile devices which have relatively small operating memory capacities.

As more and more people start to use the internet via mobile devices such as phones and tablets, the demand for an effective animation system is becoming critical to their functionality. Adobe is not abandoning Flash all together, it will still be developed for standard web browsers, but as it is generally acknowledged that HTML5 is the best future solution for mobile browsers it will cease supporting Flash for mobile devices.

Flash’s long standing non-compliance with web standards has meant that it has finally become untenable as an animation platform for lower memory devices such as phones. Adobe’s announcement comes 4 years after then CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs’ decision to not support Flash on Apple’s mobile devices. Jobs opted to embrace the emerging new technology of HTML 5 rather than the performance reducing Flash plug-in.

It is expected that Adobe will now pursue work in development using HTML5 as it struggles to retain its place in the rapidly changing technological environment of the internet.