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On the desktop, AIR is a Flash-based runtime that allows developers to use Flash and Flex technologies to develop applications that can run in a browser (using Flash Player) or on the desktop (using AIR). It adds some APIs to support things like accessing the filesystem and other common tasks that typical desktop applications might need. However, it also allows developers to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create apps, either alone or in combination with Flash/Flex.

AIR then allows developers experienced in creating Web apps—either in Flash or W3C standards—to develop applications for the desktop. The idea is that apps can be deployed online or on the desktop, and most, if not all, of the code can be shared between the two.

Adobe is moving to a common platform for Flash 10.1 that will be shared on desktop and mobile devices, instead of having a separate "Flash Lite." Naturally, then, AIR 2.0 for mobile could then offer developers a common platform to develop applications that would run on any AIR-enabled mobile device.

The multiple device support even includes the iPhone, in a way. Adobe is already pimping Flash CS5 as a way to create iPhone applications, by cross-compiling content into native ARM code. Though Apple has been staunchly opposed to allowing Flash on its mobile devices, Adobe noted that content created for the iPhone using Flash CS5 could be deployed on Android using AIR, since the API support will be the same.

Adobe plans to release AIR 2.0 soon—a second public beta is available on Adobe Labs—and the new version includes support for the latest Web standards by including an updated version of Apple's open source WebKit framework. Despite claiming that AIR is "as much about JavaScript, HTML, [and] CSS as it is about Flash/Flex," though, we have heard from at least one source that Adobe won't be including support for HTML and JavaScript development in the mobile version of AIR. (Adobe did not respond to our request for clarification on that point as of press time.)

Developer Ed Finkler, who developed award-winning AIR-based Twitter client Spaz, isn't that concerned about the potential lack of Web standards support for the mobile version of AIR, however. "Appcelerator Titanium is way ahead of AIR on mobile" with respect to standards support, he told Ars. "The 0.9 release for Titanium mobile lets you do totally native apps with JavaScript, as in all native UI components, great speed, etc."

"Being able to develop in a very popular, open standard like JavaScript is a lot more appealing to me," Finkler said.

Adobe plans to roll out Flash 10.1 on Android in the first half of this year, and may possibly be available on webOS shortly thereafter. The company is working with RIM and Nokia to roll it out for Blackberry and Symbian as well, but there's no specific deadline yet announced. The company is still mulling Windows Mobile (aka "Windows Phone 7 Series") support for version 7, but Microsoft has so far said that performance is a major roadblock for the initial release at the end of this year.

On top of that timeline, Adobe is so far only committing to getting AIR on Android "in 2010," with other platforms ostensibly coming sometime later. That puts AIR's mixed potential as a universal mobile app development and deployment platform at least a year or more away. Meanwhile, developers can build Web apps for most mobile platforms using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript now. That same code can be used to develop for Palm's webOS, and developers could further leverage that code using tools like Appcelerator Titanium to build truly native apps for iPhone and Android platforms as well.