By Lee Han-soo
Adobe Flash, which has been criticized many times for being vulnerable to malware, is set to disappear by the end of 2020.
Adobe said on Tuesday it would stop updating and distributing the Flash Player and only provide security updates.
The company urged users and developers to change to standards such as HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly before Flash's demise.
Adobe Flash, created more than 20 years ago, was one of the most-used programs by developers to create games, video players and applications that could be played on any browser.
But the program met its downfall when the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs decided to exclude it from the iPhone and iPad.
Jobs criticized Flash as a "major technical drawback" and attacked its security, reliability and performance.
Flash has also been losing market share as improved open standards were developed.
Even the company has been investing heavily in HTML5, according to Wired, an IT news outlet.
Major sites and browsers such as YouTube and Google Chrome have also dropped the Adobe format.
About 80 percent of Google Chrome desktop users once used Flash daily, but this has fallen to 17 percent and continues to decline, Google said Tuesday.
Vice president of product development for Adobe Creative Cloud Govind Balakrishnan said the company does not expect the retirement of Flash to affect profits, but had one final praise for the software.
"During its 20-plus years, Flash has had an incredible role to play," Balakrishnan said. "Few technologies have had such a profound impact in the internet era."
Adobe Flash, which has been criticized many times for being vulnerable to malware, is set to disappear by the end of 2020.
Adobe said on Tuesday it would stop updating and distributing the Flash Player and only provide security updates.
The company urged users and developers to change to standards such as HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly before Flash's demise.
Adobe Flash, created more than 20 years ago, was one of the most-used programs by developers to create games, video players and applications that could be played on any browser.
But the program met its downfall when the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs decided to exclude it from the iPhone and iPad.
Jobs criticized Flash as a "major technical drawback" and attacked its security, reliability and performance.
Flash has also been losing market share as improved open standards were developed.
Even the company has been investing heavily in HTML5, according to Wired, an IT news outlet.
Major sites and browsers such as YouTube and Google Chrome have also dropped the Adobe format.
About 80 percent of Google Chrome desktop users once used Flash daily, but this has fallen to 17 percent and continues to decline, Google said Tuesday.
Vice president of product development for Adobe Creative Cloud Govind Balakrishnan said the company does not expect the retirement of Flash to affect profits, but had one final praise for the software.
"During its 20-plus years, Flash has had an incredible role to play," Balakrishnan said. "Few technologies have had such a profound impact in the internet era."
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