The reports of the death of Flash on the mobile web have not been greatly exaggerated.
Late last week Adobe said there would be no certified implementations of Flash onto Android 4.1.
“Devices that do not have Flash Player already installed are increasingly likely to be incompatible with Flash Player and will no longer be able to install it from the Google Play Store after August 15,” Adobe’s Tal Jaber wrote in a blog post.
Adobe said Flash wouldn’t be prohibited from Android, but if installed would “unpredictable behavior”.
Adobe announced in a blog post last fall that it was winding up its support for Flash, only committing to bug fixes and security patches.
At one time support for Flash was a key competitive advantage for non-iOS platforms, like Android and Blackberry. However, as the market share of iOS grew and languages like HTML 5 matured the need for Flash for a rich web experience diminished.
Flash on Android plays out its final chapter nearly two years after the late Steve Jobs wrote an essay titled “Thoughts on Flash” where he argued that the mobile web experience on iOS shouldn’t be beholden to a “closed and proprietary” technology that “has major technical drawbacks” and doesn’t natively support touch based devices.
Mr. Jobs envisioned a Flash free world, and it looks like his dream is quickly becoming a reality.
