Flurry has written up a report, Is it Game Over for Nintendo DS and Sony PSP? It shows market percentages for major handheld platforms and notes that over the past three years the PSP’s share has all but dried up and Nintendo’s has declined from 70 to 57 to 36 per cent. What’s filled the gap? iOS and Android!

The problem is the manner in which the data’s presented. In the pie-charts provided—the hook that’s being reported everywhere—Flurry combines iOS and Android. Last time I looked, iOS and Android were not the same thing. In fact, I’m pretty sure you could consider them rival platforms, so why the hell combine them in the charts? “Because we’re trying to make the point that smartphone-oriented systems are beating the traditional ones, you idiot,” Flurry might say. So why then not combine Sony and Nintendo’s share in the same charts?

Data’s only really useful if the same methodology for presentation is used throughout. When even one set of pie-charts screws that up, the rest of the report is akin to stabbing myself in the eye with a fork, no matter how happy I am that iOS revenue is now outpacing even Nintendo’s handheld revenue.

Matt Alexander, writing for The Loop:

Simply put, Mobile Flash has been an excuse of a “feature” for platforms in the face of iOS.

[…]

Having pushed Mobile Flash as such a key differentiator, they’re looking at dealing with a whole host of confused and misinformed consumers.

That assumes most consumers will hear this news (they won’t) and that Android tablet manufacturers will stop bundling Flash, even as it ages and doesn’t get updated beyond security fixes (they won’t). I think it will be a while before the Flash bullet-point is dropped from the spec list of most Android tablets.

ZDNet:

Adobe is Stopping development on Flash Player for browsers on mobile.

More elaboration:

Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. 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.

In case no-one realises, this is Adobe throwing in the towel for Flash being a viable general web technology. With this announcement, Flash just became Director: an authoring environment for apps and—until native web tech catches up—elaborate interactive desktop embedded web-page components (including games). Anyone who argues otherwise is deluded, given that browsing is rapidly transitioning to mobile and yet Adobe’s now exiting this market when it comes to Flash.

Still, Apple and its stupid decision to not support Flash on the iPhone and iPad, eh?

Update: Adobe Featured Blogs now has a post up on the company’s decision to quit making Mobile Flash.

Gary Marshall for TechRadar on the hypocrisy of government-led, court-ordered website blocks:

The other night I tried and failed to find a legitimate pair of Sennheiser headphones on eBay. There were fakes everywhere.

Would it be reasonable for Sennheiser to demand that the Post Office doesn’t deliver any counterfeit headphones to anyone in the UK, or that ISPs block eBay? Of course not – but that’s effectively what the BPI wants BT to do with the Pirate Bay.

From Macworld, quoting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg:

People like to talk about war [between tech companies]. There are a lot of ways in which the companies work together. There are real competitions in there, but I don’t think this is going to be the type of situation where there’s one company that wins all the stuff.

Google in some ways is more competitive and is certainly trying to build their own little version of Facebook.

Pretty clear Zuckerberg’s trying to disparage Google+, but he’s missing the point. Many people use Facebook now purely out of habit, not because they enjoy doing so; in fact, quite a few people I know absolutely despise Facebook and they only stick around because their friends are doing the same.

Facebook might be secure in that. It might think that social bonds are enough, and laugh in the face of competition from the likes of Twitter and Google+. I’d just like to remind them that MySpace and Friends Reunited thought precisely the same thing, but, abruptly, lots of people fled when they became bloated and rudderless, which is precisely what’s happening to Facebook today.

Zuckerberg has recently spoken about his mentoring from Steve Jobs. Perhaps he should take a leaf out of Jobs’s book, examine Facebook, and figure out how to make it beautiful and simple, rather than a mess of information fighting for users’ attention. Because sooner or later, there’s a good chance it’ll be too late.