Last year Adobe announced it was stopping development of Flash for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
News of Flash’s demise was widely see as vindication of Apple’s decision not to include the plug-in in its iPhone and iPad products.
When Apple first unveiled the iPad, many commentators were sceptical that consumers would buy a device which could not access Flash content.
Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs defended the absence of Flash, saying it “has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it.”
Apple instead encouraged developers and content users to adapt a new version of HTML, the language which powers website, called HTML5 which allows videos and other content to be played.
Despite this, Google and Blackberry makers RIM worked with Adobe to introduce Flash to their mobile devices in the hope of differentiating them from Apple’s products.
Earlier this month Adobe pulled the player from the Google Play store, citing concerns about stability when used with the latest version of Android (Jelly Bean).
However the plug-in has been returned to the app store for a limited time.
An Adobe spokesperson said: “Flash Player continues to be available on Google Play for users in the UK for a short while due to requests from strategic partners.”
The BBC recently said it is working with Adobe on new versions of its Android apps such as IPlayer.
