New Version of Flash CS5 will Allow for iPhone App Development

The new version of Flash Professional that will launch later this year will allow for developers to create iPhone and iPod Touch applications using ActionScript3.

Developers using the hugely popular Flash development platform will have the option to export their projects as code that natively supports iPhone and iPod Touch’s ARM processor. These features will be available as part of a beta of CS5, which will begin at a currently unspecified date later in the year.

This development opens a lot of doors for interactive developers. We will be able to create mobile apps more quickly and tie them into online marketing campaigns.

Apple recently announced that the App Store is home to 85,000 apps – with Flash development support it’s likely to grow even faster.

This development will not affect the fact that iPhone does not currently support Flash itself, and developers will still need to be signed up to Apple’s iPhone Developer Program to test their apps and submit to the App Store.

This new feature extends still further Flash's potential as a games platform, giving developer access to multiple platforms: for browsers through Flash Player, for iPhone and for Abobe AIR, which Abobe has also announced will be soon available for a variety of devices and platforms including Google’s Android, Blackberry, Symbian, Palm and Windows Mobile.