How Adobe hopes to sidestep the iPhone-Flash debate

The exciting and well-documented rift between Flash vendor Adobe and iPhone heavyweight Apple has generated headlines for months. Fueled by Apple CEO Steve Jobs' reported charge that Flash is buggy and will be rendered obsolete by HTML5--an indictment Adobe has repeatedly refuted--the Adobe vs. Apple battle makes for some great copy.

But the ongoing debate over Flash on the iPhone is just one part of Adobe's mobile story. During last month's Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, Adobe unveiled an expansion of its Air platform. And though the Air announcement was overshadowed by the hoopla surrounding Adobe's forthcoming Flash for Android and webOS, it helps highlight a couple of major trends in the mobile content space.

But first: What is Adobe Air? It's basically a platform that allows developers to write Flash applications that can work outside of an Internet browser, and on multiple platforms. Air works on Windows, Mac and Linux computers (firms like eBay and AOL use it for various offerings), and Adobe last year unveiled its Packager for iPhone product that allows developers to write applications using Flash and distribute them in Apple's App Store (with some limitations). At Mobile World Congress, Adobe announced it would expand Air to Google's Android platform. (BlackBerry maker Research In Motion also is listed as an Adobe Air supporter, but neither company announced a firm commitment to bring Adobe Air to BlackBerry.)

Adobe's Air highlights two interesting trends in mobile:

First, it's essentially an acknowledgement that browser-based apps can only go so far in the mobile realm. The stand-alone, native-app nature of Air allows developers to access smartphone gesture inputs, accelerometers, GPS, screen orientations and--perhaps most importantly--the app stores where users spend money. A number of companies, most notably Google, have been pushing for a browser-based approach to applications, but the browsers on smartphones can access only so much information--for example, GPS information and file storage are generally only available inside native applications.

Second, Air by Adobe is a further attempt by the software maker to stake out Flash as the default environment for mobile application development. With Air, those developers writing for desktop computers and Internet sites can port their efforts into smartphone app stores such as Android Market and Apple's App Store. If this sounds like the "write once, run anywhere" promise that so many companies have made (think Java), it is. But, ironically, the fragmentation caused by the diversity of smartphone platforms has given rise to an equally fragmented array of possible solutions--of which Air is one.

Adobe "is really trying to win the hearts and minds of developers," said IDC analyst Sean Ryan. However, Ryan acknowledged there are a lot of players vying for the attention of a presumably finite group of developers--the latest, the Wholesale Applications Community, was formed just last month.

But Strategy Analytics analyst Josh Martin said Adobe's play for developers could get pulled off course by Apple's anti-Flash stance.

Now, to be clear, I have no direct experience with Adobe Air, and I know of only a handful of applications in mobile that actually use the technology. But what I do think is worth noting is that the mobile content space remains so fractured, and the market's direction is so cloudy, that a significant platform effort (Air) by a major software company (Adobe) can get lost in the shuffle. That's how complex the mobile content market is. And it's probably not going to get better anytime soon. -Mike