Adobe has announced that they stopped Flash Player development on mobiles. I’ve been hearing so much noise around this that I think it needs some explanation.

Adobe has stopped Flash Player on mobiles. That’s all. Nothing more. It means that Flash Player won’t be updated for mobile plateforms but let’s face it: Nobody developed Flash Websites for mobiles…

On the contrary, Adobe bought phoneGap last month and clearly turned its strategy to focus on mobile apps (phoneGap AND Air) rather than Flash-based websites for mobiles.

However, this doesn’t mean that they have killed Flash for desktops!  Flash is going to turn into a “shockwave like” technology, more dedicated to 3D than to simple animations.

Mobile development is split in two different parts: Apps and Web.

• Applications are built either with native or hybrid technologies. Applications are very popular because they are fast, can be used offline. Pure HTML5 for example isn’t robust enough to handle the work for the time being.
• Web on mobile is built with HTML/javascript.  Again, HTML5 is the future but just can’t handle as many features as Flash or apps for the moment.

So what kind of technology choices do we have for mobile?

Firstly, we have agnostic technologies. By “agnostic”, I mean one source code for several mobile OS. Adobe Air is one of these technologies (just like SUP, Unity, etc), and a good one if you know how to work with it. And… Adobe Air is just a container for Flash/Flex!

Secondly there are hybrid apps, which are typically developed using HTML5/JQuery, with native extensions provided, for example, by Adobe’s phoneGap. Hybrid apps have been recommended by Forrester over native developments (see next point).

Thirdly we have native apps, which in my opinion kill the ability to make applications that work across devices and therefore are not great for the consumer.  It could be justified on rare occasions, for example when you need to use a feature that exists on the hardware, like NFC.

So Flash is dead on mobiles (and TVs), but long live Flash for mobile apps.

PS: You want to use your Flex/Flash talents to develop mobile? Hey, you know what? Adobe has an app for that!

Gartner has listed tablets and mobile-centric applications as the top two technology trends for 2012, stating that “The implications for IT is that the era of PC dominance with Windows as the single platform will be replaced with a post-PC era where Windows is one of a variety of environments IT will need to support.”

CIO magazine says: “Mobile applications must be as effective as their desktop and notebook counterparts. “Getting mobile right requires a broad range of device support, a central point of control, a wide security net that ensures corporate data is never compromised, and the ability to shield end users from integration complexities.”

The term “mobile” now encompasses such a broad range of facets that it has become a subject related to the underlying IT architecture of a company, thus representing challenges for both IT and business, who need to work together to maximise efficiency, adoption and return.

The following are three common and basic challenges explained in simple terms:

• The choice of mobile devices for employees
• The management of the mobile fleet
• The choice of application development tools

1.      Choice of mobile devices – data security

Implementing a coherent policy for mobile phones and tablets is a major concern, as the choice has a direct impact on data security.

Should employees be allowed access to systems using their personal smartphones? Should the company provide separate smartphones to its employees for business purposes? If so, can we and should we allow employees to use these smartphones for personal use as well, without compromising data security?

Several factors need to be analysed in order to make such decisions, such as:

What type of smartphones/platforms can the IT department manage? iOS? Android?  Windows Phone? Blackberry? Even though other mobile platforms exist, the trend leans clearly to these market leaders. Even if Microsoft is a little behind at the moment, the teams in Richmond are working hard to catch up.

What kind of devices are your employees using already? Adoption is a key factor. The mobile trend is completely driven by consumer behaviour.

The choice of a mobile fleet management tool also has a huge impact on the choice of devices. I’ve gone into more details in the next point..

2.      Mobile Device Management

Commonly known as MDM, this is the corner stone of a corporate mobile policy. It’s through this solution that we can manage users, access to application, configuration, loss, theft, etc.

How to make the choice?

Go through a proper analysis phase. There are a few major players in this domain, as well as some very interesting niche solutions (refer to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant). In seeing the numbers of big players who are racing to offer these solutions, there is no doubt that the future of MDM is looking bright, and choices will open up even more.

 3.      Developing Applications

The move to mobile in the enterprise will be boosted by the use of tablets,  and users will want an increasing number of business applications to run on these devices. Will you develop web applications or native applications?

How will you develop a corporate strategy that dictates the choice of development tools?

From my perspective, companies should be pragmatic:

• What kind of resources do you have internally to manage the development life-cycle? How will you train them?
• How do you choose suppliers who have mastered this domain?
• How to deal with the pro/perso concern?

  In conclusion, defining a mobile policy should be taken seriously, as it will have a real daily impact on life within your company. Enterprise mobility is the biggest single trend across tech industry investment and innovation, even outpacing the cloud computing trend, states the Forrester report entitled, “Another Year of Outperformance for the Tech Industry — Forrester’s 2011 Tech Industry Predictions.” Analysts predict that by 2014, the primary method of accessing the internet will be through mobile devices, which will increasingly replace the traditional desktop.

The risk of not having a solid corporate strategy could be costly:

• Disruption of business processes: The functional failure of  IT systems—of which mobile apps are now solidly included.
• High cost: An ad hoc approach to building out the mobile application architecture will eventually result in time-consuming, manual intervention to maintain.
• Lack of business agility: A poorly planned mobile architecture that cannot support dynamic business strategy shifts can hold the entire business back.

Consistency across all devices

Open Screen Project

 “Adobe is spearheading the Open Screen Project™ with support from industry leaders who share a common vision to provide rich interactive experiences across computers, devices, and consumer electronics.  A consistent, more open platform for developers will drive rapid innovation; vastly improving the user experience.” Shantanu Narayen, chief executive officer at Adobe.

 Thanks to the OpenScreen Project, Adobe and other industry leaders are focusing heavily on its Multiscreen developments. Since Version 10.1, the Flash Plug-in has already been deployed on a large number of devices and operating systems, from personal computers to smart phones. This deployment is constantly growing, with the aim of creating a consistent runtime environment for the entire Flash platform. With Flash plug-ins on all major operating systems, and with Adobe AIR 2.5 deploying applications on smart phones, computers, tablets and even TV’s, Adobe products are leading the way.

The new Flex SDK (codename Hero) will allow developers to use the Spark system to create mobile applications with different user interfaces, without changing their code. With the iPhone, Android and other mobile operating systems offering widely varied experiences and interfaces, this is sure to be of interest to those involved in UX!

3D News

It’s impossible to have not noticed the 3D revolution over the past 2 years – Blue Ray 3D, 3D television requiring 3D glasses, and now standalone 3D TV’s and the Nintendo 3DS game system. These developments have proved to be very hit and miss, with some presenting 3D capabilities as little more than a marketing gimmick, and often at the expense of other features and attributes.

Since the release of Flash Player 10, Adobe has been looking to add a third dimension to motion design and interfaces. The first step was the addition of a z-axis in a 2D Flash environment. Now Adobe is working to provide real 3D with superior performance, which will allow developers to run 3D games and objects. Adobe is working closely with major Flash 3D frameworks teams in order to improve existing independent solutions (Away 3D, etc.) with the new Flash Player instructions. I’m hoping Adobe’s attempt will prove to be truly successful at adding a third dimension to the web, where up until now, others have fallen short.

Flash Catalyst

As a developer, it’s great to know that Adobe has been listening to our feedback on Flash Catalyst, as we are now able to really improve the workflow between user experience, designers and developers. A Flex developer can now import a Flash Catalyst Project, add custom classes and then export it for the UX and designer to use in the Flash Catalyst interface. Catalyst’s generated code has also been improved and doesn’t need to be reorganized by the Flex developer who’s importing the project.

Adobe LiveCycle ES2

LiveCycle

Like all other elements of the Flash platform, LiveCycle is looking at mobile usage and Multiscreen concerns. In LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 2.5, this change of focus can be seen immediately, with better support for mobile and Multiscreen. However for true enterprise mobility, there is LiveCycle Mobile ES2, which extends process management, data capture and content services to mobile devices. Easily integrated with back-end systems, it allows an intuitive mobile experience for iPhone, Blackberry, Android and WM devices. Effort has also been made to extend existing business processes to the Flash Platform (Flash Player, AIR and Adobe Reader).

What about HTML 5?

Whilst mobile utility is experiencing a growth of explosive proportions, the platforms which it relies upon aren’t necessarily standardising accordingly. Although certain mobile platforms seem destined to disappear, one cannot completely ignore their input in regards to developing new applications. As publishers and manufacturers battle it out in the war of the formats, simple solutions exist that could homogenise these various platforms.

In the following article, blue-infinity’s Jerôme Lorido discusses the standardisation of applications and the ways in which cross-platform technology could benefit the expanding realm of mobile technology.  

Click here to read the full article (in French).

Adobe Flash has been a common target of criticism  for about 10 years now. When it was DHTML’s time, we heard “Flash is dead!”. Then came Ajax, again amid cries of “Flash is dead!”. Now we have HTML5 and guess what? “Flash is dead!”.

So why do some  people have such a pessimistic views on Flash when the technology is very much alive?

In my opinion, it’s always interesting to look at an argument from both sides. Critics argue that

“Flash is a commercial product, it’s not a standard”.

Ok. Right. So what? The “standard” idea is at best optimistic, at worst completely hypocritical. Since the creation of the www, every company does freestyle with W3C specifications. I have never, ever, ever seen a web project without compatibility problems between IE, Mozilla etc. If we all followed standards as they were written, we can forget about videos and motion design and say bye bye to YouTube,  small online games  and the most visually exciting websites this last decade. I didn’t go into this business because I like data, I’ve gone into this business because I love to share and live nice moments.

“You need a plugin to see flash content”.

Right. You need a plugin for Java, you need a plugin for pdf, you need a plugin for SVG, you need a plugin for Quicktime and for everything but HTML and Javascript. Can you do the same things with HTML and Javascript? No. That’s why you need a plugin that takes all of 20 seconds to install, what a pain…

“Flash is not accessible”.

Since 2003, Adobe has put a lot of effort into improving accessibility and they’ve pretty much succeeded. My preferred answer to this argument is: “Ok, HTML development can provide accessibility but when is the last time you cared about that in your projects?” Most of the time: never. It’s not a technical problem, it’s a people problem. You wanna make your web projects accessible? So just do it! Whatever your technology is, it’s just not a major concern in 80% of cases, let’s face it. Flash can do the job as well as any other technology now, especially for video accessibility.

Aside from these three major arguments, it’d take hours for me to write down all the things I’ve heard or read on this subject over the years. If you want to hear more, check with your favorite search engine, you’ll have fun, it’s an endless story…

Before we go any further, have a quick look at what Steve thinks of Flash here : http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

So now, since the success of the iPhone and Steve Jobs’ very audible attacks on Flash, the critics are out yet again, hailing the end of Flash technology. I’ll admit that I’m not as smart as Steve, but I will try to answer his comments, point by point.

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By Scott Campbell