As expected, Adobe is following through with their plans to discontinue Flash Player for mobile web browsers, particularly on the Android platform. Devices running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean won’t have access to the Flash Player browser plugin in the Google Play Store at all. Current smartphones or tablets with Flash certification, basically devices running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or lower, will still be able to use Flash as long as the plugin is downloaded before August 15, 2012. It sounds like Adobe will remove the app from Google Play beginning 8/15. However, archived versions of Flash Player for Android in the form of APKs will be available for developers and others via manual download from Adobe’s website. It’s certainly been a good run for Flash on Android, but this was an inevitable outcome with the rise of HTML5. Below you will find Adobe’s full statement.
Adobe Update on Flash Player and Android:
The Flash Player browser plugin integrates tightly with a device’s browser and multimedia subsystems (in ways that typical apps do not), and this necessitates integration by our device ecosystem partners. To ensure that the Flash Player provides the best possible experience for users, our partner program requires certification of each Flash Player implementation. Certification includes extensive testing to ensure web content works as expected, and that the Flash Player provides a good user experience. Certified devices typically include the Flash Player pre-loaded at the factory or as part of a system update.
Devices that don’t have the Flash Player provided by the manufacturer typically are uncertified, meaning the manufacturer has not completed the certification testing requirements. In many cases users of uncertified devices have been able to download the Flash Player from the Google Play Store, and in most cases it worked. However, with Android 4.1 this is no longer going to be the case, as 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.
Beginning August 15th 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 15th.
The easiest way to ensure ongoing access to Flash Player on Android 4.0 or earlier devices is to use certified devices and ensure that the Flash Player is either pre-installed by the manufacturer or installed from Google Play Store before August 15th. 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. Future updates to Flash Player will not work. We recommend uninstalling Flash Player on devices which have been upgraded to Android 4.1.
Source: Adobe