Adobe Systems Incorporated has announced an update to Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5 software which will make possible for developers to build apps for iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry PlayBook using a single platform.  Flash Builder 4.5 will be offered standalone or as part of Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium and Master Collection.

“The reaction from developers to the new mobile capabilities in Flash Builder 4.5 and the Flex 4.5 framework has been absolutely fantastic,” said Ed Rowe, vice president of developer tooling, Adobe.

“They are amazed by how easy it is to create great mobile apps for Android devices, BlackBerry PlayBook, iPhone and iPad. Companies can now effectively reach their customers no matter what type of device they have,” he added.

Flex 4.5 also includes major productivity enhancements that will allow iPhone developers and others to swiftly build apps.  Developers can now speed up the creation of Flex and ActionScript appls using best practice code templates, code completion and code generation features in Flash Builder 4.5, and deploy them using Adobe AIR software.

iPhone developers can get more information on Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5 here.

Unlike other mobile platforms, Apple iPhone has two known platforms, Cocoa Touch and WebKit Engine that iPhone developers can use to build their applications.

A native iPhone app is built on Cocoa Touch & a web app is built using pure JavaScript, HTML & CSS; which runs on WebKit Engine built into the iPhone. Web apps, are open & can easily be consumed by the user through the Safari for iPhone (by visiting the URL).

But there is another way that developers can make use of the WebKit engine. One can write their app in JavaScript, HTML & CSS and put it under the Cocoa Touch iPhone App Wrapper which will make it a native app, as if it’s built using Objective-C & can be released in AppStore. There are several tools which help you in doing this – PhoneGap is probably the most famous among them.
Since the release of iPhone SDK 4.0 (Beta) for the paid developers; there is change in User Agreement for iPhone SDK 3.1.3 / 3.2. You may refer to our previous post on this Apple Says No to Cross Compilers: iPhone Developers ok with it ?. But this concept of development is very much appreciated by developers because iPhone supports interpretation of JavaScript from it’s built in WebKit engine and often makes things easier. Apple has recently updated the Phone Gap guys that the they would not be effected by the change in section 3.1.3 / 3.2 and apps built on PhoneGap would be judged on their merit and not based on the framework.

Jesse Macfayden actually updated an old post with the following statement..

““I have received word from Apple that the above is STILL true! If you were concerned by the recent changes to Apple’s iPhone developer agreement, this has ZERO impact on PhoneGap!

Apps built with PhoneGap will continue to be reviewed based on their own merits and NOT dismissed/rejected because they use PhoneGap.

So enough with the crazy speculative rumour mill. Let’s get back to making apps with HTML+CSS+JavaScript.”

We found this pretty interesting that Apple would allow apps built through such tools when they have actually banned apps built in Adobe CS.  What do you think of this as an iPhone application developer? Have you ever used such a tool or do you plan to use them for your application development?