Adobe pulls plug on Flash for mobile

US software maker Adobe pulled the plug Wednesday on its Flash player for mobile browsers, which Apple's late chief executive Steve Jobs refused to allow on the iPhone and iPad.

Adobe announced in a blog post it would concentrate future development efforts on the HTML5 format, which was favored by Jobs over the Flash player widely used to view videos online.

"However, HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively," Adobe general manager of interactive development Danny Winokur said in a blog post. "This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.

"We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations following the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook," he added.

Winokur said he was "excited" about the move, and vowed to work with companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM "to drive HTML5 innovation they can use to advance their mobile browsers."

In contrast to the iPad, tablet computers powered by Android, the operating system from Google, and the PlayBook from RIM are capable of running Flash and this ability has been touted as a selling point by their manufacturers.

Adobe's Flash announcement came a day after the San Jose, California-based company said it was cutting 750 jobs, nearly eight percent of its workforce.

The firm said it was eliminating the positions in North America and Europe as part of a restructuring that will see Adobe devote more resources to digital media and marketing.

Besides Flash, other well-known Adobe products include Photoshop and Adobe Reader, which manages PDF files.

Adobe shares were down 8.76 percent at $27.76 on Wall Street in mid-day trading on Wednesday.

(c) 2011 AFP