Topic

Adobe Ceases Mobile Flash Development

[Note: This post was originally titled "Adobe Ceases Flash Development", but was edited by staff for clarity.]

Now that I have your attention, Adobe has killed the MOBILE version of Flash. Per ZD Net
We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or 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.

Tiny Speck is trapped now. It is no longer possible to create a version of Glitch which will run on smart-phones.The future of Glitch is one choice : native iOS app. 

Creating a native app for Android is a resource-sucking exercise in futility. Not only is the platform fragmented beyond belief, but there is no guarantee the platform will even exist five years from now. Truly, this week articles started appearing showing how Apple stands to reap billions from Google / Android in patent licenses. I can assure you the talks for 'swipe to unlock' alone are going to run in the billions to secure a license. What a bittersweet irony that Apple will make more profit off Android than even Google. 

From a fiscal and business perspective there is only one thing Tiny Speck can do : ride Flash until all support is dropped and then jump to the iOS platform. As I had said in a previous post - don't think I don't remember those condemning me as wrong - if Tiny Speck didn't see this coming six months to a year ago they are in deep trouble. 

Since history keeps showing how right Steve Jobs was about Flash, I will keep repeating the obvious : Bet against Steve Jobs at your peril. 

Tiny Speck, welcome to the iOS community. I look forward to playing Glitch on the iPhone and iPad one day soon. 

Posted 13 months ago by TekNoh Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

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  • Huh. Has the OP ever even considered not everyone is an Apple fanboy/girl and not everyone has an iAnything? (Besides the fact that Tiny Speck have SAID there won't be a full mobile version anyway...). I'm a bit sad that I won't be able to play other stuff on my phone anymore, because yes, I did play some Flash browser games on my mobile (not any Facebook stuff, mind you) , but Glitch would just be silly. I'd need a magnifying glass. And no one would put all the time and money into developing something like this for just an iPad, would they? That's as proprietary and one-way as it gets...
    (And no, I don't have an Android phone either-I'm one of those people perfectly happy with Symbian and not in need of overblown iAnything app shops... ;))
    Posted 13 months ago by Alyx Sands Subscriber! | Permalink
  • To be fair, striatic, HTML5 *could* perform as well as Flash does now: I'd say a good script-kiddy could get a Canvas-implemented game up to comparable performance... in orders of magnitude more time spent. The main problem is lack of advanced support -- engines, dev tools, libraries, etc. -- not the tech itself. That will all come in time: the Immersion Engine is already doing great things for HTML5 games already.

    I don't think you were crapping on HTML5, but it's worth being said for others.
    Posted 13 months ago by Reihox Subscriber! | Permalink
  • FWIW, there are some impressive HTML5 canvas demos out there for basic side-scrolling games.  It's the way the industry is going; Adobe even advocated it for mobile in their announcement about ending Flash on mobile platforms.

    Sure, the tools aren't great yet (don't get me started on Adobe Edge's backwards output), and libraries aren't hugely optimized for performance, but I would bet the story on that front is going to be very different in a year or so.
    Posted 13 months ago by mirth Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @striatic : Exactly how is Google going to 'absorb' anything through a vendor which is losing money? I don't know what fantasy land you live in, but there is no 'potential' that Apple is going to stick it to Google with patent licenses, it's going to happen. But thanks for all the links you posted showing the robust financial health of the companies aligned with Android... oh, wait... you didn't, did you? I wonder why that is...

    Your biases blind you to simple realities. One simple reality is that millions of Android phones have already been sold with 'swipe to unlock'. Apple now owns the patent for 'swipe'. It is trivial for Apple to significantly damage the handset manufacturers with license fees, and at this point I believe that is almost an afterthought at Apple. The big guns are going to be trained on Google as the source of the infringement by implementing 'swipe' in Android. 

    There is no way Google comes out of this undamaged. NOT. GONNA. HAPPEN. 

    I don't care if you stick your finger is you ears, wear earplugs, or spend the rest of your life in a sensory depravation tank, there are two technological certainties that are unavoidable in the next 3 - 5 years : 

    1. Android will collapse and be tossed on the ash heap of history
    2. Flash will cease to exist

    Nothing you have said will alter those two realities. Reality # 2 means Tiny Speck ends up on iOS as the only outlet for distribution. It's funny that people say I am wrong about that, but then create a dog pile about what a hunk of junk HTML 5 is, and how it isn't up to the task of equalling Glitch in Flash. If you pulled your heads out of your asses long enough to read what I wrote, you would slowly - oh, so slowly - see that I am agreeing with you! 

    If there is no web technology up to the task of equalling Glitch/Flash, and Android is going away (stop it - Android is going away) then tell everyone exactly : what avenue for distribution is left?! Smoke signals? IP over Carrier Pigeon? Pen pal letters?

    If Tiny Speck isn't deep into a contingency planning project they are toast. Even that most hated company called Apple ALWAYS has a back-up plan. I am not seeing that from Tiny Speck. I am seeing they made a huge bet on a technology that was/is lumbering towards the tar pits of technological irrelevance. If there is a plan for a post-Flash Glitch Tiny Speck would do well to communicate this sooner rather than later. 

    I just don't see how Tiny Speck fights a three-front war and comes out better for it on the other side. Three fronts, you say? Yes : 

    1. Fundamentally flawed game design
    2. Technological irrelevance
    3. Migration to a new platform

    I have only addressed 2 and 3. Even if Tiny Speck solves them, # 1 could still kill them off. People are starting to tire of lather, rinse, repeat. I will just say this is not the business model I would have picked for Glitch, but no matter what I say Tiny Speck / Glitch will make for some fascinating reading in a business textbook case study someday. 
    Posted 13 months ago by TekNoh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Addressing # 1 seen in my comment above

    "We realized that if we incentivized things that were inherently boring," Butterfield told me, "people would do them again and again—it showed up in the logs—but that they would secretly hate us."

    I had no idea. If the Flash problems don't kill Glitch off, thinking like this will. I doubt I am the only one who is waking up to exactly how boring Glitch really is. Truly, the king has no clothes.
    Posted 13 months ago by TekNoh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Opinions =/= Facts. Thread over.
    Posted 13 months ago by Reihox Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I long for the day I can play Glitch on my Ipad!
    Posted 13 months ago by Riddel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Isn't Adobe's repositioning of Flash for online gaming what Adobe Air is all about?  In which case, why does it matter to Tiny Spec wether Adobe's 'Flash for the Web' continues or not?  Adobe produces a very fine game runtime in the form of their Flash product.  Anybody who doesn't agree with that, uh... why are you here on the Glitch forum, again??

    And Steve Jobs is dead.  I know of at least one area, his early cancer treatment, where he was a complete fool.
    Posted 13 months ago by Parrow Gnolle Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Google just reported their revenue for the year from Android : $833 million. Compared to Apple, it's not even chump change. We do know that Google makes $2.5 billion per year from ALL mobile efforts, which includes the iPhone. This means two-thirds of Googles mobile revenue is coming from Apple. Remind me again why Android isn't a financial disaster?

    It's a certainty HTC didn't make $800 million off Android. It just stands to reason - they don't get a cut of the action off every Android phone like Google does. Surprise! HTCs latest financials are a mess. Plummeting selling prices, GPM and OPM down year-over-year. They are the classic economic model of a company on the verge of imploding by having an increasing share of a declining market. No wonder the stock dropped 75% of it's value this year alone.

    Motorola? Net loss of nearly $200 million dollars for the year. Boy, isn't that Android a financial miracle? It destroys every company it touches, but somehow everyone thinks it has a future.

    Yep... those Android handsets are just making boatloads of money. The point was, is, and always will be that Android is not the cash-generating machine that Apple has with iOS. It is only a matter of time before Apple squashes Android like a grape. Then again, if revenge is a dish best served cold (like this posting, actually) Apple will hold on to the cash and just let Android starve to death. 

    After all, it's inevitable. 

    Which is why I notice Glitch the Boring has re-entered 'beta', whatever the hell that cutesy phrase means. TS can put all the spin on it they want, but the reality is that TS woke up and realized they screwed the pooch a few dozen different ways 'till Sunday. Which means someone with the reigns of power at TS realized I was right, or at least they were thinking the same things I was. 

    I would be willing to bet an emergency committee was formed to begin an iOS porting project before its too late. Android is damaged goods - at best - with the dearth of profits and now the Carrier IQ scandal, so the only logical thing to do with money on the line is jump to iOS as quickly as possible. 

    I would like to think I am above saying I TOLD YOU SO, but it turns out that I am not. So I will be a poor winner and say I TOLD YOU SO one more time. I TOLD YOU SO. Ok, three times. I TOLD YOU SO. So sue me. 
    Posted 12 months ago by TekNoh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes. That is the reason Glitch re-entered beta. Well done, give yourself a pat on the back.
    Posted 12 months ago by Shiromisa Kaya Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Wow, man. What on earth is your problem? Either play the game and have a good time, or don't.
    Simple, right?
    Posted 12 months ago by Voluptua Sneezelips Subscriber! | Permalink
  • someone has his crankypants on...
    Posted 12 months ago by flask Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Must be.  TekNoh said it was and now he's right and can say "I told you so".

    He wins the intertubes.  I mean, I read what he posted, and it was on the internet and that makes it true and that means he wins.  

    Doesn't it?
    Posted 12 months ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Obviously TS should give him 1000000 funpickles and 2000000 SB-1s and a parade in his honor because he has single-handedly saved Glitch.
    Posted 12 months ago by Shiromisa Kaya Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It's totally not because they want to push out more content.
    More areas.
    More items.
    More customer support.
    More bang for your "buck".
    More skills.

    You lose. Good day sir.
    Posted 12 months ago by Volkov Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Glitch re-entered "beta" because they knew they had a farking boring game on their hands. I think they have realized, finally, that Flash is dead, too. One day in the not too distant future Flash will be gone from all desktops, and Glitch with it. 

    I think someone at TS finally pulled their head out of their ass and realized they were about to lose a metric crap-ton of money, and went about doing that which would cause the loss (hopefully) to not happen. It may be too little, too late. History will tell us what the answer is on that one. 

    But once again I have to say that I am enjoying all the links to the dazzling financial news which heralds the triumph of Android in the marketplace. Yep. I am enjoying each and every one of them you left. Just savoring them over and over again. Click. Click. Clickety-click-click.

    Each. and. every. one. 
    Posted 12 months ago by TekNoh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • You must have not read the bit where TS said it's not about the money anymore.
    Posted 12 months ago by Volkov Subscriber! | Permalink
  • dija hear that, guys?

    some guy says glitch is boring! i'm sorry, i forgot to be bored.

    i can't even figure out crankypant's motivation, unless he just wanders from interweb forum to interweb forum making unprovable assertions of smug self-serving doominess because he was too late to debunk the warren commission.
    Posted 12 months ago by flask Subscriber! | Permalink
  • That's nice.

    By which I mean, have fun with that, I couldn't care less about the future of Flash or the financial success or lack thereof of Android, I just think it's fucking hilarious that you're so invested in being right about this, to the point of deluding yourself into thinking you have this hotline to the Technology Gods and TS better listen to you or else.

    So I guess it's less "that's nice," and more "I'm gonna go squeeze some more chickens now."
    Posted 12 months ago by Shiromisa Kaya Subscriber! | Permalink
  • All that anger must mean something.
    Posted 12 months ago by Parrow Gnolle Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I love Apple fanboys. The entertainment never ends.
    Posted 12 months ago by Reihox Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Troll is lost. Troll should go here instead.
    Posted 12 months ago by Holgate Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @TekNoh except the article about adobe ceasing mobile flash dev, you are not providing any links
    Posted 12 months ago by Ingvar Subscriber! | Permalink
  • What the hell am I? Your wet nurse?! I state, you prove me wrong. That's they way an adversarial system works. If you think I am wrong, bring the pain. If you can't bring the pain, then you win the grand prize - you get to shut the hell up because you have nothing. Before you do, however, please know this : I never bluff. 

    IF I am wrong about Glitch being boring, why the "unlaunching"?
    IF I am wrong about the future of Android why do companies backing Android keep losing money?
    IF I am wrong about the profitability of Android, where are the 10-Q's showing profits?

    Why can't anyone show one link countering the spurious allegations I make? Simple. Because they can't. All they can use to counter my allegations is leprechaun farts and unicorn tears. While I - meanwhile - just turn to the internet and read the "reporting" to learn : 

    For every $1.00 made with iOS, the exact same app will make $0.24 on Android.

    Only a fool would look at that and argue Android is "WINNING!". Nobody to be taken seriously can make a legitimate business case for Android being around in five years. The money just isn't there! Every quarter brings more losses for handset manufacturers banking on Android. The losses are just starting to rack up for cell phone service providers as support costs for Android are starting to eat them alive. The simple reality is this : Android users are a bunch of damn cheapskates and it is, for all practical purposes, impossible to make money off them. 

    Then there is the story of Nokia who literally cannot give away Android handsets on its home turf. If you can't see it's time to turn out lights when that happens, you are either completely stupid, or hold an MBA. 

    So please, PLEASE! Tell me  : where is TS is going to turn with Flash living on life support where Adobe can pull the plug at any point in time it wants? The only path for survival is to write native apps. Apple is on the verge of killing off desktop computers, even their own. So if there is no Android, and there are no more desktop computers, then precisely where in the hell will TS turn to make a buck?

    If you say anything else than iOS, you are, quite simply, too stupid to have a conversation with. 

    I have said it many times : if TS wasn't coding for the jump to iOS six months to a year ago they are going to be in a world of hurt. Apple, Mozilla, even Google know that Adobe could knife the baby at any time, and they truly don't care if they support Flash in their browsers. They all could drop Flash like a bad habit at any time they want, too. So no browsers, no desktops, no Android - exactly where will TS turn?

    They will turn where they can make the money - iOS. All one has to do to realize this is fact is to follow the First Rule of   Life : Whenever anyone says it's not about the money, it's ALWAYS about the money, totally and completely. iOS brings the eyeballs AND the money, and nothing on the planet even comes close, even when given away for free. Anyone that would bet against THAT reality should be kept as far, far away from the corporate checkbook as possible. 
    Posted 12 months ago by TekNoh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Good thing your company is making money so fast, being that you have your hands on the corporate checkbook, and a proven track record in building and selling internet companies.

    Oh, wait.  No one has showered millions of dollars on your start-up?   Could it be that your expertise isn't good enough, even on paper, to convince the people with their hands on the checkbook?  
    Posted 12 months ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • brb shockwave.
    @WindBorn.
    He's obviously Bill Gate's son.

    @TekNoh.
    One.
    Two.
    Three because I thought it was interesting.
    Four.

    They could have just said, "Nope, you can no has refund. Your monies are ours".
    That, and they're willing to triple the credits?
    They're willing to lose money to grant a support base.
    Posted 12 months ago by Baptiste Subscriber! | Permalink
  • trollface.jpg <-- TekNoh

    I mean, he has to be, right? No one can seriously use that many strawmen...
    Posted 12 months ago by Reihox Subscriber! | Permalink
  • He's kinda cute, isn't he?  A baby troll practicing in a kind environment, where they don't eat baby trolls on sight.  
    Posted 12 months ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like how he's attempting to debate people who are basically here to laugh at him. It warms the cockles of my heart.
    Posted 12 months ago by Shiromisa Kaya Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Don't mind me I'm just here to laugh at the guy spending way too much time writing paragraphs about Glitch/Tiny Speck's obscurity so he can win the internet.

    Did some one get him a gold star? I think he'd like a gold star.
    Posted 12 months ago by Ernest Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I've been looking all over but I can't find a place to buy iOS for my desktop PC.  Not even a torrent to download....  I guess it will have to get stuck in storage with the CP/M machine and the 8" floppy drives....  And the Apple II and the SE/30's.

    Everybody is buying iPads this year for Christmas, the landfills in January will be flooded with electronic waste.  How cool.
    Posted 12 months ago by Parrow Gnolle Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @TekNoh - Hmm. Let me follow your conclusions.
    1. iPhones, iPads, etc. are the only viable computing platform for the future. - Desktops & laptops have remained viable computational platforms for decades. Why? Power, capacity, speed, ease-of-use, extensibility, just to name a few reasons. Do I need a link to demonstrate this point? No. I have 30+ years in the computer industry, both hardware and software. 

    2. iOS is the only viable OS because of #1. Not even Apple has been that stupid. They continue updating Mac OSX. And Linux and Windows are thriving. What is the ratio of Windows-based systems to Apple computers? And try doing a major graphics design project on your iPad! This is one of Apple's major professional markets. Apple is focusing on portable devices because they've got a strong market presence there, but I sincerely doubt they are kill their core products so readily.

    3. It's all about the money - Yes and no. How's your calculus? There's a reason economic majors must have basic education in that area of mathematics - optimum value calculations. You have at least an MBA? Or some other kind of professional training or experience that supports your economic models? I've been in business management as well as IT and was 3rd in a corporate hierarchy for product release with an international manufacturer. I've had other manufacturing experience as well. 
     
    4. Glitch is limited to browser-based development using one of : Flash, HTML5, Silverlight, or iPhone type technologies. Ever heard of Java? Go to this link: html://runescape.com Surprise! A complex, 3D, highly graphical MMORPG that has been running since 1999 (more or less), has been F2P most of its existence, makes substantial profit for the parent company, has a stand-alone, Open Source shell available, can be played on any major OS or browser... Do I need to continue? All one has to do is apply all your arguments made those far relative to this game (Glitch) and apply them to RuneScape. Conclusion when doing that? FAIL! Additionally, TS has already stated that they are not confining themselves to any specific platform. They'll go whatever route seems most viable. That does include stand-alone applications. Stewart Butterfield and his team have literally made millions from their products. Have you?

    Glitch boring? For those outside its target audience and usage parameters, yes. But Glitch was in Alpha/Beta for two years and managed to sustain a group of players satisfactorily that number in the several thousands. Many of whom have paid, and continue to pay for the value-added features. 
    Posted 12 months ago by Fokian Fool Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @TekNoh

    Then there is the story of Nokia who literally cannot give away Android handsets on its home turf. If you can't see it's time to turn out lights when that happens, you are either completely stupid, or hold an MBA. 

    It's a cool story bro, but use of plural form with handsetS is not proper regarding the above link and you know it.

    Also, if you mimic your adversaries in not providing any links to prove opposite party wrong, all discussion becomes he said she said and such is rather disappointing to read - but this is thing of the past now as links have emerged.

    Now, i do not know the flurry platform, but the fact that it is platform related to mobile development, makes it strong source.

    But not strong enough when you go against businessinsider and stackoverflow (< regarding android, since stackoverflow actually says html5 beats flash).
    Posted 12 months ago by Ingvar Subscriber! | Permalink
  • A baby troll practicing in a kind environment, where they don't eat baby trolls on sight.

    He wants room 12A, next door.
    Posted 12 months ago by Holgate Subscriber! | Permalink
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