Adobe's Flash won't be making noise on our smartphones for very much. The company's confirmed that while Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 will get a Flash update by the end of 2011, there won't be an upgrade for Ice Cream Sandwich 5.

Adobe will release one more version of the Flash Player for mobile browsing, which will provide support for Android 4.0, and one more release of the Flash Linux Porting Kit - both expected to be released before the end of this year. After that time, Adobe will continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates.

The news is good for Galaxy Nexus users and smartphone owners who'll make the Ice Cream Sandwich update to take advantage of the full Web experience. When it's released next year, Android 5.0 will be the first not to offer support for Flash. Even so, Adobe will continue to develop Flash for PC browsers, mobile and TV app developers.

Adobe is focusing future innovation with Flash on advanced entertainment use cases, like console-quality gaming and premium video, with a focus on delivering these experiences through browsers on PCs and as apps through app stores on mobile devices and TVs. We are continuing to develop new versions of Flash for PC browsers and mobile and TV app developers. We are also continuing to develop new versions of Flash Professional and Flash Builder tools for developing Flash content.

What will replace Flash? Adobe has a solution: HTML 5.

Of course, with the growth and continued improved browser support of HTML5, the role of Flash will change. For the foreseeable future, Flash offers advantages in delivering premium video with content protection, as well as providing a high performance, feature-rich and graphically advanced gaming platform. We are focusing our Flash Player efforts around these areas.