AIR, Flash and Self-Fulfilling Prophesies

30 January 2008 by Matthew Gertner - Category: Rants and Ruminations

Yesterday I mentioned in passing my bet with Mike Shaver that Adobe will deliver AIR as part of a new Flash version at some point during the year. So naturally I speed-dialed my accountant when I saw the following on Ajaxian this morning:

The biggest advantage that AIR has, though, is Flash Player 9’s near 97% penetration rate. In addition, rumor has it that Adobe will issue an update to the Flash player that would include the AIR runtime making it a highly desirable target for building new applications. We’ll have to see if the rumor holds true.

Unfortunately, when I went to grab the link and milk it for maximum gloating potential, it had been amended:

Update: Adobe’s Rob Christensen has sent me an update letting me know that Adobe has no plans at this time to bundle AIR with the Flash Player. One of the primary goals of the Flash Player is to keep the download size as small [as possible] so that they can continue adding powerful features like h.264. Thanks for the update Rob.

Why do I have a funny feeling I know who started that rumor? (I should mention that the bet specifically mentioned a contingency where Adobe would provide an AIR stub in Flash that would download the rest of the runtime when needed, which would mitigate the footprint issue that Rob cites. I’m not ready to make a down payment on a new apartment just yet, but I remain hopeful.)

Update: In the comments, Enefekt points out the Adobe has a pretty convincing deployment story already. I’m not sure whether this qualifies as “providing an AIR stub in Flash”, but I hope it does, because with this solution in place I’m not sure that Adobe will feel the need to integrate the AIR runtime more deeply into Flash.


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COMMENTS
  • http://enefekt.com/sansbrowser/ enefekt

    Does the Adobe AIR Badge Installer count? I mentioned it in one of my last comments. It automatically (with user permission of course) installs Adobe AIR via the Flash Player, along with an app of your choosing.

    http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/articles/air_badge_install.html

  • http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart/ monk.e.boy

    You know what? I have wish they would. Flash is what the internet should be. HTML is SO old skool it hurts. No animation? Boring.

    Has anyone at the W3C ever played a Playstation? Wii? XBox? Those are the sort of interfaces people expect. Not boring text like The Times. Boring.

    Bring it on Adobe, maybe it’ll kick some sense into those wasters who make the ‘standards’ that no one wants (maybe they would have been helpful in 1990?)

    monk.e.boy

  • Matt

    Enefekt,

    I updated the post.