Adobe announced that it has released the newest version of its Flash Player for the Android mobile operating system. The new version, 11.1, now supports Android’s version 4.0 (also known as Ice Cream Sandwich) of its popular operating system. The new update is now available for download from the Android Market. Alongside the new Flash Player version, Adobe also announced that it will be releasing a new version of Adobe Air – version 3.1. Adobe Air is a crucial part of the Adobe offerings because it allows various Flash-employed apps to be brought to various platforms.
Adobe Flash Player 11.1 is a significant release not because it offers anything radically new but because this is the first update for the mobile version of Flash player Adobe has released after announcing that it will stop development for this product and will just release security updates or bug fixes. Adobe has said that it will be shifting its focus on development of HTML5 and will look for different ways to integrate Flash into HTML5 applications and various other products. The desktop version of Flash Player is still being developed, with version 12 to be released at some point in the future. Adobe has also said that it will try to find ways to integrate Flash and make it work with sites that use HTML5.
Adobe’s decision to make Flash integrate with HTML5 is the company’s way of trying to be relevant in the face of growing support for HTML5. Microsoft has already said that the Metro version of its upcoming Windows 8, will no longer support plugins for Internet Explorer 10. This effectively prevents users from installing Adobe Flash in their browsers.
Originally posted on December 20, 2011 @ 8:14 am