Adobe’s Flash program is on its way to becoming kind of a computery version of the coelocanth: so sparse in population that while it will exist, many will believe it to have become extinct. As of today, Flash Player is gone from Google’s Play store and Flash’s parent company, Adobe, says it has halted developing it for Android devices. The decision to pull it was Adobe’s and it did so even though it was a well-reviewed bit of software among Google users.
From the BBC:
But Adobe said it was removing the option to install the plug-in because it was likely to exhibit “unpredictable behaviour” when used with the latest version of Android, known as Jelly Bean.
It also suggested that smartphone owners who had upgraded to the latest system should uninstall the Flash Player if it was already on their device.
All signs now point to HTML5 being the standard for animation on web sites, a standard that YouTube is now adopting as well. Apple, famously, has never allowed Flash on its iPhones and iPads saying it was too heavy a product that burdened devices more than it helped them. Adobe says it is confident that Flash still has a big future on PCs. Don’t stop believing, there, Steve Perry.
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