Adobe Flash gives up on iPhone, gives out on Android?

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen has told Telegraph that, since Apple?s just not that into Flash, he and his almost ubiquitous plugin are moving on:


?We believe in open systems. We believe in the power of the internet and in customers making choices and I think a lot of the controversy was about their decision at that point. They?ve made their choice. We?ve made ours and we?ve moved on.? [Telegraph]


The part about openness, of course, is Eric Schmidt-level disingenuous. It has nothing to do with corporate philosophy and everything to do with trying to pander for sympathy from a large, active user base. Unfortunately, it tends to work so if you?re feeling any FOSS-pangs on Adobe?s behalf, remind yourself that what they and their complaint to the FTC are all about is preventing developers getting locked into Xcode so Adobe can lock them into CS 5, and preventing video getting moved to HTML 5 so Adobe can keep it in Flash. And that?s all fine, that?s all great ? it?s what a company should be doing for their products. It just shouldn?t be wrapped in ?openness? buzzwords, it should be wrapped in great, jaw-dropping, must-have technology.

Which brings us to the one mobile device OS Adobe has actually managed to ship Flash on some 3 years after everyone was demanding it on the iPhone ? Android 2.2. Android Central has given it fairly positive reviews. Laptop Magazine?s Avram Piltch on the other hand was somewhat less than thrilled with the shipping version, given his headline:


Mobile Flash Fail: Weak Android Player Proves Jobs Right [Laptopmag]


He?s referring to Steve Jobs? open letter on Flash and subsequent comments at the D8 conference. The headline is sensationalistic for certain (though who am I to judge, see above), but then Adobe?s John Dowdell, after the reading the article, seemingly intimated Piltch was using an illegitimate version of the software on a hacked device (which he wasn?t). [Macalope]

I?ve used Mobile Flash on my Nexus One and it?s? okay. If this was 2007, it would even be promising. As it is, in 2010, Adobe can certainly move on from Apple, but it seems mobile is rapidly moving past Flash.

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