Despite the claims that Flash was dead or was in its final death throes, it seems that the much-maligned program will be making its return on Android 4.0. Information given to Pocket-Lint by Adobe themselves suggests Flash will be remaining with Android.
Adobe also admitted that this would be the last release of Flash on Android, meaning that Flash as a mobile application is gone. This news should no doubt please many people who are considering buying the Galaxy Nexus handset, which is the flagship phone running Android 4.0.
Adobe themselves have said they will be reorganizing their efforts to pursue their goals as a company and this means that Flash must be discontinued for mobile devices, though the company will still release periodic updates to address security flaws. Adobe then went on to say that they will develop their AIR framework further. For those unaware, AIR is the framework that some applications run on. Perhaps the best known of these applications is the TweetDeck Twitter client, though other examples exist.
Adobe even discussed their views on the future of the Flash Player as a whole. These views were summarized by the company as follows:
"Of course, with the growth and continued improved browser support of HTML5, the role of Flash will change. For the foreseeable future, Flash offers advantages in delivering premium video with content protection, as well as providing a high performance, feature-rich and graphically advanced gaming platform. We are focusing our Flash Player efforts around these areas."