Regardless of what team you root for – Apple changing the rules (of the developer program license) mid game, is extremely short sighted and poor form (at a number of levels). How any company can expect developers to fully commit to a platform, where the fundamental rules, are subject to change so swiftly, with such feeble justification, is beyond me.
An interesting side-note from all of the Apple-Adobe carry-on, is the focusing of the spotlight on Adobe’s mobile Flash (development) platform and where it’s heading.
I think it’s great that Adobe have been able to bounce back so quickly and change the focus of a negative situation, into something positive.
One thing people seem to have missed, is that this is not Adobe’s first negative experience in the mobile space. Those of you who have been working with Flash for a number of years might recall their last foray(s) into the mobile market – FlashLite and FlashCast.
So given Adobe’s track record in this space, why should anything be different now, just because we have some shiney new mobile devices to (potentially) run Flash on?
Don’t get me wrong, I think Adobe’s focus on the new Android (and Windows) based mobile devices shows an enthusiastic tenacity, and i’m certainly not dis’ing Flash on mobile devices in general. What concerns me, is that I don’t think Adobe has adequately addressed/learned from their past failures with FlashLite and FlashCast. Which IMO, is critical for them to move forward with a fresh new start.
More specifically, they need to work hard on restoring their (mobile) credibility with burnt FlashLite and FlashCast developers who eagerly championed Flash on mobile devices in times gone by. Only to be thrown to the curb when (for whatever reason) Adobe decided they didn’t want to play that game any more. The funny thing is, that it’s highly likely, that a large portion of these FlashLite/FlashCast developers, will potentially be the developers championing Flash development on the new Android devices.
That being the case, how/why is this time going to be different to the past?
April 21st, 2010 at 11:43 am
Hi Matt, in your penultimate paragraph, are you saying someone was hurt because they also placed a bet? Does the even-more-plausible bet now not help?
jd/adobe
April 21st, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Hey John, I’m not sure I follow you. I know of several developers who invested a lot of time and money in said mobile platforms only to have them fall by the wayside – if I understand you correctly, you’re intimating that they were ‘betting’ on the success of these platforms?
April 23rd, 2010 at 5:34 am
Hey Matt -
I think you’re dead-on. Flash Lite and Flash Catalyst were complete failures. Any assertion that Flash is deployed on millions of Symbian devices is irrelevant because it’s deployed in a way that is almost completely useless. As a developer what am I going to do with Flash on a Nokia smartphone? How in the hell am I going to make any money off of that? It’s pointless.
That said, Adobe is finally getting it right with FP 10.1. I’d say they should have done it years ago but I don’t think the hardware has enabled it until recently – due in large part to Apple entering the game and raising the bar.
But there is no doubt in my mind that the Flash on mobile devices strategy has been a complete failure until now – and it’s much too early to call it a success. I do believe they will do well on Android and Windows Phone 7 though.
But let’s not underestimate how big and important the iPhone is. It now on track to make 40% of Apple’s $55B+ annual revenue. Apple is nearing Microsoft size and has over $40B in the bank. The iPhone is a force to be reckoned with and Flash’s absense from it is a HUGE problem. Lucky for those of us who compete with Apple, they are completely blowing their long-term developer strategy.
April 23rd, 2010 at 6:27 am
Thanks Mike – I think you mean FlashCast not Flash Catalyst (give it a few years before tagging it as a failure
Totally agree with you on all the great work that’s gone into 10.1 – I think Justin Everett-Church, Tinic and all the team have done an outstanding job on the update.
It also seems as though i’m not alone in thinking that Adobe missed their opportunities in the mobile space – Dan Rayburn expands on the whole FlashLite story and delves under the covers to expose some of the issues Adobe has been facing for a number of years on this front, in an excellent post over at his blog.
April 23rd, 2010 at 6:48 am
Haha – yeah, I meant FlashCast. I left my own comments on Dan Rayburn’s post here:
http://mdowney.posterous.com/response-to-the-underlying-story-behind-a dobe
April 30th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
lets not forget that Macromedia started up flash for mobile devices back in 1999 with Flash 4 for pocketpc.
Flash for pocketpc was not exactly a success for developers either. That makes 10 years of failed opportunities and burned developers (like me).
I see no guarantee that MS is going to allow Flash as a run time on its Windows 7 phone platform either. They could just as easily limit their platform like Apple to only Silverlight applications.
Flash developers may end up with Android as their only standalone Flash application option for mobile devices.
May 1st, 2010 at 8:15 am
hey Mike and Matt,
I was there during the days of Flash Lite and Flash Cast and know first hand the ups and downs ;o)
Regarding Flash Lite on Nokia devices, there are quite a few developers who are seeing success with distributing through Ovi Store. There have been over 10 million downloads of Flash Lite apps/games and they’re able to reach tens of millions of Nokia users in over 180 countries.
As for FP10.1 on Android, I’m waiting to see what Adobe shows at Google I|O and what the go to market story will be for Flash developers then.