Adobe has stopped development and release of new versions of the Flash player for smartphones running Android 4.0.x or higher, citing “unpredictable behavior” on the operating system.This come after Adobe announced in summer of the decision to stop further development of Flash on Android even though it has been a very popular download on the Google Play store. Apple had famously declined to add Flash support in their iOS powered iPhones, with the late CEO and founder of Apple, Steve Jobs saying, that Flash may affect the reliability, security and battery life. Instead Apple chose the open HTML5 standard for media and did ask Adobe to support it also. Youtube started using HTML5 for its video website increasing the adaption rate of the standard. On announcing the pull out of Flash from Android, Adobe acknowledged that HTML5 is,  “the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms”. Many developers are making apps for smartphones using a combination of HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, thus making the apps ready for multi platforms with not very much or hardly any change to the code. These technologies make it easy for people who are used to and have skills of HTML5 to make the transition to developing mobile apps.

The decision of Apple not to support Flash on iOS was one of the main reasons why many users opted to buy an Android smartphone, as many websites and videos were using Flash for functionality. Adobe will continue to provide updates for existing Android Flash versions up until September 2013. For anyone who has Flash installed on Android 4.0.x and higher, Adobe recommend uninstalling the software for  it can potentially destabilize the device.

Flash will still be available for PCs, where Adobe’s chief technology officer, Kevin Lynch, is confident of its future. “With Flash we’re focusing on two areas,” he told the BBC, “One is console quality gaming – this is really bringing the level of gaming to the web that you can see on consoles today and with Flash we actually reach more people than any of the gaming platforms. That includes working on 3D technology inside the browser. The second area is premium copy-protected video for people who have high value video, like movie studios or cable companies, who want viewers to watch the video anywhere but also want to make sure its protected.”