Just two days ago Google announced Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean”, the next and greatest version of Android, hailing its advanced features such as Google Now and its increased smoothness with Project Butter. Alongside that announcement came a quiet announcement from Adobe, saying that Android 4.1 would be the first Android version without “certified implementations” of Flash–that is to say, the first version where Flash is not officially supported:

…we have not continued developing and testing Flash Player for this new version of Android and its available browser options.  There will be no certified implementations of Flash Player for Android 4.1. …  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.

This is the direct conclusion of Adobe’s November announcement that Android 4.0 would be the final version with Flash support.

Just because Adobe is discontinuing Flash support for newer versions of Android does not mean that it is immediately closing the doors and ceasing distribution, however. Flash will in the mean time continue to be available for all devices running Android 2.2 and above, including Android 4.0. It is unclear if Android 4.1 devices will even have the ability to download Flash.

Adobe will eventually be ceasing to distribute Flash for Android, and will block new Google Play installations starting August 15th:

Beginning August 15^th we will use the configuration settings in the Google Play Store to limit continued access to Flash Player updates to only those devices that have Flash Player already installed. Devices that do not have Flash Player already installed are increasingly likely to be incompatible with Flash Player and will no longer be able to install it from the Google Play Store after August 15^th.

[Adobe via The Verge]