Adobe goes mobile with Android and iPhone support

Adobe has announced new products and updates at its annual MAX conference in Los Angeles, the major theme being the extension of support beyond the desktop to mobile devices and other platforms.

The company unveiled a version of its AIR software for televisions, tablets, smartphones and PCs, which enables developers to use existing code across these platforms.

Adobe also announced an update to its LiveCycle Enterprise Suite, which similarly extends corporate content services, process management and data capture to mobile devices.

Adobe AIR 2.5 adds support for Google's Android platform and Apple's iOS devices, plus the BlackBerry Tablet OS for RIM's forthcoming PlayBook device, according to Adobe. Samsung is even planning to integrate support for Adobe AIR 2.5 in its SmartTV range, the company said.

AIR enables developers to build standalone applications using combinations of Adobe's Flash and Flex tools, plus Ajax and HTML, but previously supported only Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

"With the release of AIR 2.5, more than three million Flash developers can now build a single game or application and easily deploy it across multiple application stores and devices," said David Wadhwani, vice president of creative and interactive solutions at Adobe.

AIR 2.5 and the AIR 2.5 SDK are available now for Android and desktop operating systems, while the BlackBerry PlayBook is expected to ship with the AIR runtime preloaded.

Meanwhile, LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 2.5 adds a new component, LiveCycle Mobile ES2, which extends support for the platform to Android, BlackBerry, iPhone and Windows Mobile devices.

The suite is used within large organisations to automate business processes, including data capture and delivery of content to the endpoint device.

Adobe positions LiveCycle Enterprise Suite as a tool for customer-facing applications, and the new mobile support enables customers to more easily extend existing business processes to the point of customer interaction, the firm claimed.

"Customers expect to interact with business applications or services in the same way they do when shopping, connecting with colleagues and friends, or booking a vacation," said Rob Tarkoff, vice president of digital enterprise solutions at Adobe.

With the introduction of LiveCycle ES 2.5 and new solution accelerators, Adobe is enabling businesses to deliver these intuitive experiences, he added.

Adobe LiveCycle ES 2.5 is available immediately.