To be clear, this is a significantly different situation than with iOS. With iOS, Flash not only isn’t preinstalled, it can’t be installed, period. With Mac OS X, users are free to download Flash Player from Adobe and install it themselves.
Apple spokesperson Bill Evans told me: “We’re happy to continue to support Flash on the Mac, and the best way for users to always have the most up to date and secure version is to download it directly from Adobe.”
That’s a big change. I’m not sure exactly when Apple began bundling Flash Player as a standard component in Mac OS, but it was long enough ago that it was not a mistake that I didn’t include the “X” in the name of the OS. If I had to guess, I’d say Mac OS 8.6 — around the time of the deal to bundle IE as the default Mac OS browser, or maybe even earlier. We’re talking ancient history.
Wow. Either Flash penetration on the Mac is about to tank, or Adobe will ship a better way to install Flash than the current method.
Either way… wow.