Adobe: Flash for Android 4.0 By Year’s End, But No Flash for Android 5.0

One of Android’s biggest draws used to be that it could run Flash on its devices, but now all that’s changing. This past weekend, Google told Slashgear that Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) would not have Flash pre-installed, nor would the runtime be readily available on the Android Market—at least for the time being.

The reason for the delay, Slashgear reported after speaking with Google, was that Adobe had yet to update their mobile version for Flash to suit Android 4.0. At the moment, Adobe Flash Player is only supported on Android versions 2.2 (Froyo) to Android 3.2 (Honeycomb).

Proponents of Flash need not fret though; the company has confirmed that this project is indeed in the works. Earlier in the day, Adobe told tech website Pocket-Lint that Ice Cream Sandwich support would arrive for Flash before the end of 2011. But it also said updating Flash for future versions of Android—5.0 and beyond—was not on the agenda.

As you might recall, Adobe recently announced that it was turning its back on mobile Flash to refocus its development efforts on HTML5. But at least Android users will have Flash on version 4.0 to tide them over as the wait for the new standard to kick in begins.

via Slashgear and Pocket-Lint

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