At least, that’s the word according to Paul Burnett, Adobe’s Open Web Evangelist. I’m just off a call from him regarding Android ICS Flash, Flash on the desktop and Adobe’s development future.
I’ve not had time to transcribe the full interview, but Paul clarified Adobe’s position on Flash, both on the desktop and on mobile devices.
For mobiles, Flash Player 11 will be updated to include Ice Cream Sandwich capability (corroborating a story that first broke on Pocket Lint), but not beyond that; at that point, according to Burnett, it’ll be down to hardware manufacturers to take the Flash source code and implement it themselves if Flash is going to go forward there. Burnett’s view is that as mobile users have increasingly shifted towards Apps for content over mobile, AIR is more appropriate Adobe technology there.
On the desktop, Burnett’s view is that Flash is, despite some reports and even moves to convince users to dump it, still a premium way to access content, most notably rich gaming and video content. It’s not a case where it’s Flash versus HTML5, according to Burnett; Flash can increase the scope of HTML5, as it’s done in the past. I’ll post the full interview up once I’ve had the chance to finish transcribing it.
Image: Travelling Fools Of America