When review units of the HSPA+ “international” version of the Galaxy Nexus came out, we were surprised to find that Adobe’s Flash Player was nowhere to be seen on the Android Market. Of course, that didn’t mean much to most US users, since Verizon’s combined exclusivity and “delays” meant they couldn’t get a hold of an Ice Cream Sandwich phone anyway. Well, Adobe’s software developers have delivered just in time, and you can now download Flash for your shiny new Galaxy Nexus, no matter where you are.
The update is a little confusing, since it appears to be the same APK file that was sent out on December 12th. That was thought to be a minor stability fix, but now it appears that it’s the full-fledged Ice Cream Sandwich compatible Flash Player. I’m guessing that Adobe still had some last minute testing to go through, and updated Flash’s compatibility list in the Android Market today.
Of course, there’s a big red elephant in the room. Adobe isn’t releasing any more major revisions to the mobile version of Flash, on any platform. 11.1 will be the final revision, except for maintenance updates. They’ve essentially given up the fight to HTML5, and will focus on their set of development tools for the web standard. Android 4.0 is the last version that will see official Flash support.
Still, best to make hay while the sun shines. Scoot on over to the Android Market on your Galaxy Nexus (or your ICS ROM) and get your Flash on.
I haven’t even really noticed a performance hit.