AIR 2, Adobe said, allows developers to create "more reliable and feature-rich applications in a desktop context." It also adds to AIR 1.0 apps the functionalities offered by AIR 2, such as greater support for mass storage devices and peer-to-peer networking .

Flash Player and the Open Screen Project

Flash Player 10.1 is an update of the highly popular player that is virtually ubiquitous on every desktop and laptop computer, and becoming increasingly available on mobile devices. According to Adobe, Player 10.0 was downloaded and installed onto 93 percent of all computers in its first 10 months.

Player 10.1 is the first "consistent browser runtime release" of the Open Screen Project, which is an Adobe-led industry initiative to allow seamless rich Internet experiences across a wide variety of devices using Flash Player. About 50 companies are part of the effort.

Among other things, 10.1 can take advantage of new content-protected, streaming media delivery, and of hardware decoding for H.264 video.

AIR enables the development of applications for both the browser and the desktop, using the same code, assets, tools and other aspects. The desktop applications can also have online components. Both AIR 2 and Flash Player 10.1 utilize gestural interaction and multi-touch points, as is becoming common on mobile devices.

Expanding the Beachhead

Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst at industry research firm Forrester, described both releases as "incremental" improvements on the previous versions, with new features and better desktop support.

The big breakthrough contribution of AIR 1.0, he said, was that "web applications didn't have to be different from desktop applications," and both could be developed using the same tools and resources. AIR "1.0 was establishing the beachhead," he added, "and 2.0 is widening that beachhead."

Hammond noted that improvements in AIR 2.0 include "tweaks in security areas, support for USB ports, and better access to file systems."

At this point, he said, the competing Silverlight technology from Microsoft is "neck and neck" with Adobe's in terms of desktop support, although he described AIR as "being perhaps a little better." Hammond noted that both companies are quickly matching innovations from the other, and he expects Microsoft to reply soon with its own updates.

As for Flash, the virtually ubiquitous technology that underlies virtually all animation and as much as 75 percent of web video, Hammond said the "big excitement there" is the rollout of the player for mobile devices.

The prerelease beta versions of both AIR 2.0 and Flash Player 10.1 are free downloads from the Adobe Labs site.