Adobe Updates Flash Builder and Flex to Support Apple’s iOS

Adobe on Monday announced that Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5 now include support for building apps for Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Apple has not shown any interest in adopting Adobe’s flash technology in iOS devices. However, with the latest updates to its authoring tools Adobe could be looking at enabling developers to develop for multiple platforms using their software.

Before iOS 4 was made available Apple would not allow apps that were developed using tools other than the official SDK. Later when some of the top apps were discovered to be using other tools Apple changed its developer guidelines and allowed such apps to be accepted as long as they don’t download any code.

With the latest versions of Flash Builder and Flex Adobe will be able to offer support for iOS development. In addition to iOS, the software also supports Android and BlackBerry’s PlayBook.

Adobe’s CEO continues to feel that for Apple it’s a business decision as opposed to being a technology decision when it comes to offering native support for flash in mobile safari. Steve Jobs on the other hand believes that Flash is on its way out as HTML5 is gaining more popularity.

It’s interesting to note that Adobe is also working on a Flash-to-HTML5 converter so that developers can convert their flash based projects and make them compatible with Apple’s safari browser for iOS devices.

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