Ding-dong! Adobe Flash is dead (on mobile).

By Richi Jennings (@richi ) - November 9, 2011.
 
Flash player for mobile devices -- but not iPad or iPhone -- is dead. Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE) has killed it. It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to meet its maker. It's a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. It has run down the curtain and joined the choir-invisible. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers mourn its passing. Or not. Beautiful plumage.
 
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Photoshop pun shenanigans...
 
 
Jason Perlow breathlessly claims an exclusive:

Adobe is Stopping development on Flash Player for browsers on mobile [and] is now focusing...development efforts on:

• Applications for mobile
• Expressive content on the desktop
• Increasing...investments in HTML5 in general.   

  
Ina Fried knows all things:

Instead, Adobe will focus on tools that allow Flash developers to create mobile apps...to run on Adobe’s AIR platform.
...
The move, if true, would be a major blow to Android device makers, who have long touted Flash...as a key competitive advantage over Apple.
...
[This] comes amid a broader restructuring at Adobe, which announced earlier...that it was cutting 750 jobs and re-sorting its priorities.   

And Chuong Nguyen has more on that context:

[It's] part of a broad and massive restructuring plan [which] will see the elimination of 700 jobs, mostly in North America, as [Adobe] changes its focus from software to research and marketing investments in digital strategy.   

But Mike Isaac makes a bit of a leap:

And with that...Adobe has signaled that it knows, as Steve Jobs predicted, the end of the Flash era on the web is coming soon.
...
[It's] a massive backpedaling on Adobe’s part, a company who championed its Flash platform in the face of years of naysaying. ... Despite Flash’s near ubiquity across desktop PCs, many in the greater computing industry...have denounced the platform as fundamentally unstable on mobile browsers, and an intense battery drain.   

"Alright, stop. Collaborate and listen," Dan Florio seems to say:

[It's] a massive mistake to not bring Stage3D to the mobile player. ... If you think about it that’s probably all of the Flash Player that is really needed on mobile.
...
On the bright side: lets take Adobe at their word and consider that they really are going to focus more on AIR. That can only mean good things.
...
Adobe has lost so much credibility with the community that I’m hoping they are bought by someone else that can bring some stability and...credibility back to the Flash Platform.   

Meanwhile, Jonny Evans goes all friends-Romans-countrymen on us:

[L]end me your ears. ... In a sudden moment of clarity, Adobe has seen the light. ... This doesn't mean Flash is going away, it's just going to be refocused as a development environment...[for] HTML 5.0.
...
Even those Android fans who would bleat about how they had Flash...would complain at its poor performance...and battery draining powers.
...
Gandhi once said, "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." It seems that...Adobe...won't be a hitchiker on mobile devices any more, but a servant aiming to deliver multimedia experiences for your platform.
...
[It] not only vindicates Apple's decision but also underlines Apple's...advantage in contrast to other browsers.   

  
And Finally...
Photoshop pun shenanigans
  
 
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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. He's the creator and main author of Computerworld's IT Blogwatch -- for which he has won American Society of Business Publication Editors and Jesse H. Neal awards on behalf of Computerworld. He also writes The Long View for IDG Enterprise. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can follow him as @richi on Twitter, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itbw@richij.com. You can also read Richi's full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.