Adobe loses out in battle with Apple

ADOBE is pulling its Flash software for web video and games from the browsers of mobile devices, though Flash will still work on mobile apps and on the web browsers of regular computers.

The move is a win for Apple, which has famously banned Flash from working on the iPhone and the iPad.

Adobe said last night, however, that it is about giving people what they want.

“I wouldn’t say we lost to Apple. I’d say we listened to customers,” Adobe’s chief financial officer Mark Garrett said in an interview.

The popularity of Apple’s mobile devices and its steadfast opposition to Flash has pushed into the public eye what has been a largely technical conversation about the workings of web displays and apps.

In April 2010, Apple founder Steve Jobs wrote a lengthy diatribe criticising Flash for being too buggy, battery-draining and PC-focused to work on the iPhone and the iPad. It was an explanation of the company’s long-standing ban of the technology from its mobile operating systems.

In a blog post yesterday, an Adobe vice-president, Danny Winokur, said the company would increase investment in HTML5, the latest version of the programming standard for websites.

Fewer than two months ago, Mr Winokur, who serves as vice-president and general manager of interactive development, told The Associated Press that Adobe was equally focused on both Flash and HTML5.