One platform to rule them all
At its worldwide developer conference - Adobe MAX - design software giant Adobe launched the latest version of AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), which is designed to allow developers to run once piece of code across multiple devices and platforms.
The key announcement was that AIR 2.5 allows apps written on it to work on not just PCs, but smartphones, tablets and Internet TVs too. A number of major OEMs, such as HTC, Samsung and BlackBerry expect to be pre-installing it on devices within the next few months.
"With the release of AIR 2.5, more than 3 million Flash developers can now build a single game or application and easily deploy it across multiple application stores and devices," said David Wadhwani, SVP at Adobe. "This is a huge step forward for developers looking to build rich, engaging applications but who have historically had to incur the cost of building them separately for each device and platform."
Another key development was Adobe InMarket, which helps developers distribute their apps on the plethora of apps stores that are springing up, such as the Android Market, Intel's AppUp centre and proprietary stores from Acer, RIM and Samsung. "You receive 70% of the sales revenue; Adobe and its partners take care of credit card processing, hosting, and marketing," says the blurb on the InMarket page.
In practice, due to Apple's ongoing shunning of Adobe Flash, this development represents a tightening of the embrace between Google - especially Android - and Adobe. If developers can get the same app to run on PCs, Android phones, Android tablets and Google TV, that will represent considerable economy of effort for them.
