Adobe Roadmap for the Flash Runtimes
An insight into Adobe's current thinking and plans around core Flash functionality
Adobe announced its plans for the Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR development in the next one to two years. According to the company Flash is still better for the gaming and premium video markets, and with some architectural and language changes to the runtimes they will become well placed to enable the richest experiences on the web for another decade. At the same time Adobe AIR will focus on incorporating features from the core Flash Player runtime. Also in the future Adobe AIR and Flash Player browser plug-in releases will be increasingly synchronized and released simultaneously.
With the growth of competition in the browser market, browser vendors are increasingly innovating and providing functionality that makes it possible to deploy rich motion graphics directly via browser technologies, a role once served primarily by Flash Player. Increasingly, rich motion graphics will be deployed directly via the browser using HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and other modern web technologies. While the primary role of Flash Player on the web remains the same, what it is used for will change.
Adobe believes that the Flash runtimes are particularly and uniquely suited for two primary use cases: creating and deploying rich, expressive games with console-quality graphics and deploying premium video.
Adobe AIR 3 added the ability for developers to extend the API surface and functionality of the runtime by bundling native extensions into their applications. These extensions are written in lower level languages, and can provide access to features and functionality not exposed via Adobe AIR.
Future Adobe AIR development will focus on incorporating features from the core Flash Player runtime. While desktop and mobile-specific APIs will be developed, they will not be the primary focus for Adobe AIR development efforts. Developers requiring functionality not available directly via Adobe AIR APIs should consider adding that functionality via the native extensibility API.
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