The end is nigh for Adobe Flash Player on mobile devices. Having already said they were entirely focusing on Windows and Mac development with AIR, Adobe have stated they won’t be playing any part in Google Android 4.1, ‘Jelly Bean’.

Issuing an official statement on their blog, Adobe reiterated that “there will be no certified implementations of Flash Player for Android 4.1” and that they would be “discontinuing” any future mobile browser development. This means we won’t be seeing any future updates for Android/Flash capabilities through Google Play. Whilst installing Flash on the incoming raft of Jelly Bean devices might still be possible, any future tinkering will be down to the developers, with no official support from Adobe.

Adobe issued some advice for anyone confused about future Flash offerings:

The easiest way to ensure ongoing access to Flash Player on Android 4.0 or earlier devices is to use certified devices and ensure that the Flash Player is either pre-installed by the manufacturer or installed from Google Play Store before August 15th. If a device is upgraded from Android 4.0 to Android 4.1, the current version of Flash Player may exhibit unpredictable behavior, as it is not certified for use with Android 4.1.  Future updates to Flash Player will not work.  We recommend uninstalling Flash Player on devices which have been upgraded to Android 4.1.

It’s clear then, that Flash is dying a slow death - at least on mobile platforms. This withdrawal from the latest Android OS signals the end natively for Flash. HTML5 here we come!