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Adobe cuts 750 jobs, drops mobile Flash?

November 9, 2011

Adobe Systems is cutting 750 jobs, while reports say it is halting development of its Flash Player plug-in for mobile devices.

The firm said the job cuts were being made in Europe and North America and represented more than 7 per cent of the company’s workforce.

The Flash mobile plug-in works on Android devices and Blackberry’s Playbook tablet, but Apple has barred it from iPhones and iPads supposedly for unreliability.  Reviewers also criticised its performance on other devices and Microsoft recently announced it would not support the product on the tablet interface of its upcoming Windows 8 browser.
Website ZDNet said it had seen an email briefing sent by Adobe to its partners:”We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version of device configurations.”

“Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations. We will continue to support the current Android and Playbook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates.”
The report said the firm would now focus on the alternative HTML5 technology and its own AIR product.

Categories: Articles, Business, Middleware, Mobile