Apple has waged a very public war with Flash on the mobile battlefront. Flash is losing, severely.
Microsoft has followed suit, but proclaiming a plugin-free mobile tablet OS. By not supporting plugins like Flash, Microsoft's mobile OS will be able to keep a longer battery life, as well as control security, reliability and privacy with greater ease.
The new design language named Metro is focused around a touch-screen oriented interface and forms the backbone of Windows 8.
With Flash on it's way out, HTML5 will step in and gain full support by Microsoft, Apple and more. Meanwhile, it seems that Adobe will be fighting back using Air as a medium for defending the attacks against Flash. In a statement, Adobe pointed out that Flash-based apps will be present on Metro, as well as iOS and Android via Air. What Adobe has to lose is significant. Adobe is not concerned about the plugin. The concern is over Adobe's very expensive content creation and web development tools. These tools will quickly evolve to maintain their strength in the market, as Adobe defends it's ability to deliver for the web.