Adobe deciding to can Flash for mobile devices may look scarier than this year’s Halloween costume to many. That’s before you delve behind the initial news that the Flash Gordon outfit is to be returned to Oxfam for good. For mobile gambling industry developers, it’s likely to make life easier in the long term.
The reasons behind the decision vary. As anyone involved with the technological side of any business knows it’s one that moves at a speed unmatched by other industries. Today’s new buzz is very often yesterday’s news at the drop of a hat and evolving is important. Blame could also be put at the door of Apple, with the late Steve Jobs once admitting that Adobe Flash drained battery life and was unstable. It’s unclear whether this was to cover their collective ass when it comes to the iPhone’s horrific battery life. If you have any smart phone you can attest to the toil of battery-life though.
It gets to the crux of the point. Apple has never accepted Flash and it means that developers would have been left with a choice – develop for HTML5 and Flash or just the former. It’s why Adobe has been led to focus on HTML5 and the AIR product. It does mean Apple has to redouble its efforts if it wants to kill off Adobe.
For those not familiar with AIR, it helps developers to create “stand-alone” applications that are based on either Flash or HTML5. The main advantage is it allows them to target multiple devices with the same or “similar enough” codebase AKA you can go for Android and Apple!
To keep the smile on the faces of developers, there was an acquisition that largely went under the radar. PhoneGap is a technology that helps even further in the building of cross-platform apps on primarily iOS and Android but also Blackberry and many others. The only one not supported is Windows Phone.
When Adobe has finished playing around with the intricate parts of PhoneGap, combining it with Air could become the industry standard for app development. The news goes to further back the widely held theory that HTML5 is the one that all iGaming companies must now be gearing towards when it comes to apps. In terms of the gambling industry, rules surrounding native apps are illogical and tend to fluctuate a great deal. With HTML5 the system is a different one and therefore not likely to present as many difficulties for the gaming industry.
