The said statement, issued on Friday by two Adobe product managers even noted that the focus seems to have been shifted to HTML 5 and is noting the same to be the “best technology for enterprise application development”.
From the company’s end, they might be trying to clear off non-profitable sections, but it has caused a bit of stir in the world of Flex developers. Erich Cervantez, senior Flex developer for a large chain of health clubs said, “It feels as though Adobe is completely abandoning Flex, and ultimately Flash … My company has invested millions into committing to Flex for our enterprise applications and now I don’t know what to tell them.” says Erich Cervantez, senior Flex developer for a large chain of health clubs.
Some link the killing of Flash, to be a result of negative reactions from tech big shots like Steve Jobs, who never acknowledged the good in Flash. As a plug-in for mobile Flash in web browsers or on smartphones and tablets, it was in a ‘not approved’ list always in Jobs’ diary. Jobs was of the thought that Flash was buggy, unreliable and, in some cases, caused things to slow down. Moreover, it even added to the list of security risks, as the Flash player could conceivably be a portal that could lead into hacking a phone or releasing code that could exploit the OS.
Adobe came back again and again by reinventing Flash as a cross-platform runtime which you can package into applications on iOS, Android, and on desktop platforms. But was it still in the liking?
Briefing about Flex, developers have widely used it to avoid browser compatibility issues, and because it is a capable client for data visualization and multimedia. It is capable enough of building applications both for Flash in the browser where available, and for standalone desktop and mobile apps.
Flash did take considerable time to get into notice as in its early stages, Flash on desktop computers was used by many, May it be for doing animations or using it as a video player. In the web world, YouTube was one major player, which embraced Flash with both hand, but things only turned worse as there were a number of snags like incompatibilities and, performance issues, which made one think that Flash was not the best option for everyone.
ZDNet’s Robin Harris is of the view that It was obvious 18 months ago that Adobe had lost the smartphone Flash player war. He even questions, as to why did the company take quality time to admit the same. His part of the story can be read here in detail.