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Adobe will cease Flash support for the next major version of the Android operating system, the company has said.
Android 5.0, colloquially known as ‘Jelly Bean’, has no firm release date though is expected to be unveiled next year. There will be a final Flash update to Android 4.0 next month, Adobe said, but thereafter support will be reduced to a handful of possible bug fixes.
Adobe rocked the interactive entertainment industries earlier this month by announcing it will cease support for Flash on mobile browsers.
And in what appears to be an indication of further action, Adobe said “with the growth and continued improved browser support of HTML5, the role of Flash will change”.
“For the foreseeable future, Flash offers advantages in delivering premium video with content protection, as well as providing a high performance, feature-rich and graphically advanced gaming platform,” the company told Pocket Lint.
“We are focusing our Flash Player efforts around these areas."
The sudden withdrawal of support for Flash comes despite high-profile support for the new desktop edition of the player.
Both Unity and Epic Games are modifying their game engines to support the Flash Player 11, which can display high-end 3D graphics due to advanced hardware acceleration techniques.
The company said it is “continuing to develop new versions of Flash for PC browsers and mobile and TV app developers. We are also continuing to develop new versions of Flash Professional and Flash Builder tools for developing Flash content."
