In November, Adobe shocked the tech world when it announced that it would no longer release future versions of its Flash Player application for Google"s Android OS and for the Blackberry Playbook. The decision effectively shut down future Flash support for mobile web browsers. However, the company continues to develop Flash Player, along with Adobe AIR, for other platforms.
In a newly released roadmap for the future of Flash Player, Adobe revealed more information about the future of the application. The roadmap also addresses the issue of supporting Flash on Windows 8. Unfortunately, that support is currently up in the air at the moment. The roadmap document states:
Adobe is currently working closely with Microsoft to finalize details around supported configurations for Flash Player and Adobe AIR on Windows 8. This document will be updated once this has been finalized and release schedules are available.
For users of Linux, Adobe has decided not to support a stand alone Flash Player application after the release of Flash Player 11.2. Instead, Adobe says it is working with Google to support an API, titled "Pepper", that will allow Flash to run on Google"s Chrome web browser for Linux.
Speaking of Flash Player 11.2, it is scheduled to be officially released sometime in the first quarter of 2012. It will add a number of new features including support for both middle and right mouse button clicks and more support for hardware accelerated graphics cards. Adobe also revealed three more versions of Flash in the works. The first, code named "Cyril", is due out in the second quarter of 2012 and will add keyboard input support for full screen mode, among other features.
Yet another update, code named "Dolores" is due out in the second half of 2012 and will concentrate on adding gaming features. Finally, a major overhaul of Flash Player, code named "Next", is due for release in 2013.