Thursday, November 24, 2011

Ice Cream Sandwich Is the Last Android Flavor to Taste Flash

Before the end of the ongoing year, Adobe will push out a new flavor of Flash Player for devices running under Google's Android operating system, so as to deliver the software to the new Ice Cream Sandwich platform release as well.

Android 4.0 does not come with Flash right from the start, but will get a taste of it in the near future, Adobe reportedly confirmed.

Image comment: Adobe won't release Flash for new Android releases after Ice Cream Sandwich
Image credits: Phandroid

Moreover, the company announced that Ice Cream Sandwich is the last version of Android to get a taste of Flash.

“Adobe will release one more version of the Flash Player for mobile browsing, which will provide support for Android 4.0, and one more release of the Flash Linux Porting Kit - both expected to be released before the end of this year,” the company said, according to Pocket-lint.

From that point onwards, however, Adobe will discontinue development of Flash for mobile devices, though the company will keep on providing bug fixes and security updates for it.

Basically, this means that Android 5.0, or whichever new flavor of the mobile OS is launched in the future, will not get a taste of Flash.

“After that time, Adobe will continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates,” the company explained.

All that is known at the moment on upcoming Android 5.0 platform is the fact that it should be called Jelly Bean (following the pattern that Google chose with existing OS versions), though chances are that the company might announce more on it sometime in mid-2012.

While the lack of Flash might seem like a deal breaker for some, the experience users receive from their devices might not be altered in the bad way after all, especially considering the wide adoption that HTML5 has seen in the mobile space.

Adobe, however, will remain committed to the development of AIR for mobile devices, offering developers an important environment for building applications, and will also continue to develop Flash for desktop computers.