In a move that is both unsurprising and inevitable, Adobe has announced that Flash will not be supported in Android‘s latest release – Jelly Bean. Adobe will be pulling Flash from the Google Play Store completely after August 15.
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While Flash is still available within the Chrome browser in devices with ICS, Adobe has recommended users to unintstall Flash when Jelly Bean hits a slew of devices in mid-July.
Adobe finally conceded defeat last November, to mobile device manufacturers, in particular Apple, who have criticized Flash for instabilities and performance issues. Apple’s iPhone and iPad do not support Flash, and is also no longer bundled with the Safari browser on OS X.
For mobile devices, Adobe is banking the future on HTML5 and Adobe AIR, where developers can create native apps with the Adobe AIR SDK/APIs. Adobe will focus on more advanced PC web experiences, including gaming and premium video as well as mobile apps.
Adobe will continue to support the current Android and BlackBerry PlayBook installs with critical bug gives and security updates.
With the absence of Flash, mobile devices manufacturing can no longer tout Flash as the key to access the “full web” as the mobile web clearly moves towards HTML5.
