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Adobe yesterday announced that its Flash Player won't be compatible with mobile Android devices starting with Version 4.1 of the mobile OS, also known as Jelly Bean. Starting on August 15, only certified devices running Android 4.0 or earlier will have access to Flash Player updates from the Google Play Store.
A device that's certified for Flash typically has Flash Player preinstalled, or it gets added during a system update. If you have a tablet or phone without Flash Player and you want it, you'll need to download it before August 15. But, says Adobe, "[d]evices that do not have Flash Player already installed are increasingly likely to be incompatible with Flash Player."
That means if you download Flash, it won't stop working, but it could become unstable or develop security issues later, at which point you'll likely have to remove it.
Flash has never been part of Apple's iPad/iPhone world, and in fact, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs predicted its eventual demise.
Back when the iPad made its debut, Jobs outlined all the reasons he didn't want Flash on Apple's mobile devices—security, reliability, its proprietary nature, and the fact that Adobe wanted third-parties to develop Flash apps for Apple's mobile devices. He predicted that HTML5, an alternate content-viewing technology "will win on mobile devices." And in fact last November, when Adobe first indicated it would phase out development of Flash Player for mobile devices, a representative of the company indicated "a greater shift in focus toward HTML5."
Adobe provides a list of devices certified for Flash Player.
—Donna L. Tapellini
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