Adobe to launch beta of Apollo platform, called AIR

Adobe Systems is planning to launch a software which enables Web-native applications operate like desktop programs. The name of the software is AIR and Adobe is all set to launch its beta version. This software which had been earlier called Apollo will bring a new class of hybrid applications that meld the Web with the PC.

The new software, called Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), will be available as a free AIR software development kit and will be aimed at those developers building those hybrid applications.

At the same time, Adobe is also planning to launch the beta of Flex 3, its software development tool that can now be used for writing AIR applications in addition to Flash and HTML-based Web applications. Of late, there have been a number of browser plug-ins entering the market. Microsoft's Silverlight and Google Gears are just some examples.

Though almost all these plug-ins are of the same category, each serve a different purpose. Like Adobe's Flash, Silverlight runs interactive Web-based applications, including those that integrate media such as video. Microsoft Silverlight will be available in its first version this summer.

Google Gears offers the ease of running web applications offline by providing a local database and other features and is expected to make its debut later this year.

Adobe's AIR software operates much like Google Gears, in that it also has an offline component and AIR applications can operate without the need for a browser.

Customers can use their existing applications and tools to build these desktop applications and this is said to be the main advantage of Adobe's AIR. Typically, a developer will use AIR to write a desktop application that links to an online service, as Adobe has done with its video playback application, Adobe Media Player.

Kevin Lynch, the company's chief software architect and senior vice president of its platforms group, said, "As a developer, you now have a lot of choices about applications. The reasons you might want to build desktop applications would be (getting) access to the local file system, or notifications onscreen to get the user's attention...or having a desktop icon."