There was a time when Adobe Flash was king. Pretty much every video on the net ran on Flash, so did most of internet games. Times have changed and last year Adobe conceded defeat to HTML5, the new format that is believed to lead the future of video and gaming on the web.
A big part of the death of Flash had to do with Apple’s firm opposition to it, with Steve Job’s instead stating the HTML5 standard was the future.
But is that the whole picture? Honestly, Adobe Flash could have remained a strong force in the mobile world through Android, but it didn’t handle updates and integration very well and quickly lost support in the Android developer community. Additional problems with flash had to do with security and stability issues that the company was slow to fix.
While current Android devices have Flash player plugins, yesterday began the starting of a new mobile era without Flash when the company officially stopped offering the Flash for Android plug-in.
While the mobile world is moving away from Adobe’s multimedia format, the PC world will still have access, although its only a matter of time before it is abandoned for HTML5 on that front as well.
Flash for Android – is it really gone?
While Flash for Android might be gone officially, many videos on the net still require it. Essentially, this could cripple your device, right? Luckily, if you need Flash for Android badly enough, there are ways to still get it.
Adobe may have pulled the plug on Flash for Android, but you can still download it from Adobe’s own site. Following that link, you can download the APK to your computer and then side load it to your device with a special service such as APKinstall.
Just remember that this version of Flash for Android is no longer getting updates or bug fixes, which means that stability will only get worse as time progresses. Until HTML5 is widely available everywhere though (which is starting to happen), it should at least provide a quick fix in the meantime.
Via: PC World