At Adobe MAX, Adobe announced Adobe AIR 2.5 software for televisions, tablets, smartphones and desktop operating systems. Adobe also announced Adobe InMarket distribution service.
Adobe Flash Platform, AIR, enables developers to leverage existing code to create and deliver standalone applications across devices and platforms. Adobe AIR now supports smartphones and tablets based on BlackBerry Tablet OS, Android, iOS, and desktops, including Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems.
Samsung will be the first television manufacturer to integrate support for Adobe AIR 2.5 in Samsung SmartTVs, while Acer, HTC, Motorola, RIM, Samsung and others are expected to ship the runtime pre-installed on a variety of devices, including tablets and smartphones later this year and early 2011.
With Adobe AIR, developers are able to use familiar tools, including Adobe Flash Professional CS5, Adobe Flash Builder and Flex to build rich standalone applications. Hundreds of them are already available on Android Market, Intel AppUp center and Apple's App Store today. In addition to AIR 2.5, Adobe also unveiled Adobe InMarket today, a new service that allows developers to easily distribute and sell their applications across different device types on app stores from Acer, Intel, and others. Adobe InMarket operates seamlessly in the background and allows end users to download applications directly from the storefront. For more information, visit Adobe InMarket.
AIR 2.5 enables application experiences through a series of new features, including support for accelerometer, camera, video, microphone, multi-touch and gestures. Support for geo location allows developers to create location-based applications and services. AIR 2.5 is also able to display native-browser controls within the application, allowing for the integration of HTML and SWF content. With SQLite support, developers can easily store and cache databases inside an AIR application. In addition, hardware acceleration for Adobe AIR is enabled across all major silicon partners, including Broadcom Corporation, Intel, NVIDIA, ST Microelectronics, Trident, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and others.
Already one of the top free apps on Android Market, with more than 50,000 users giving it a 4.5-out-of-5 star rating, Flash Player 10.1 brings rich Flash-based content to mobile devices inside the browser. The runtime is now certified on close to a dozen Android devices and will become available on dozens more over the coming weeks and months. Adobe also announced that Flash Player 10.1 was downloaded more than 2 million times from Android Market. In addition to Android Market, the runtime is distributed directly by device manufacturers and operators via pre-installs and operating system upgrades. Flash Player 10.1 is available on Android and Google TV today, with BlackBerry platform, HP webOS 2.0, future versions of Windows Phone, LiMo, MeeGo, and Symbian OS also expected to support Flash Player 10.1. For a list of devices supported today, visit Adobe Flash Player 10.1 certified devices.
Flash Platform Tools
Adobe also announced previews of developer tools that make the process of multiscreen development more streamlined. With new releases of Flash Platform tools, including an AIR 2.5 software development kit (SDK), developers can build mobile and multiscreen applications for smartphones, tablets and televisions, while maximizing design and development productivity. An update to the open source Flex framework provides developers with a common framework for building Web, desktop, and now mobile applications. Developers can build standalone mobile Flex applications with the same ease and quality as on Web and desktop platforms. For details, visit http://www.adobe.com/go/flexsdk_preview/.
Availability
Adobe AIR 2.5 and the Adobe AIR 2.5 SDK for Android and desktop operating systems, which include Windows, Macintosh and Linux, are available today. The BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR, which works with the Adobe AIR 2.5 SDK to create applications for the BlackBerry Tablet OS, is available today from RIM, while the runtime is expected to ship preloaded on the BlackBerry PlayBook. For more details and to download the SDK, visit http://www.adobe.com/go/air_sdk. Users of Android 2.2 "Froyo" devices can download Adobe AIR directly from Android Market today. A preview release of Flash Builder is available for download at Adobe.com.