Adobe trumpeted “significant advancements in mobile application development” as part of its Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 release, including “all new tooling and framework support in Flash Builder 4.5 software for developing, testing and deploying mobile applications on Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS platforms.” It is also adding mobile support to its open-source Flex 4.5 framework. The company said that this “new approach in mobile development” enables developers to use a single tool chain, programming language and code base to create “highly expressive applications” across mobile platforms, improving performance while reducing development time and cost of delivery. The technologies are designed for the creation of standalone apps using the Adobe AIR runtime, which can be distributed via Apple’s App Store, Android Market, Amazon Appstore for Android and BlackBerry App World.

Flash Builder 4.5 is said to accelerate the development of Flex and ActionScript projects, including “round-trip workflows” with Adobe Flash Catalyst CS 5.5 software, enabling designers and developers to work in parallel throughout application development. It also includes new capabilities to enable “faster and more productive coding,” as well as performance enhancements. Moving an app between platforms is said to be “often as simple as a recompile.” This will enable developers to re-use “most or all” of their code across applications targeting web, desktop and mobile platforms, Adobe said.

Ed Rowe, VP of Development Tooling for the company, said: “with the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, enterprises now need to ensure that their applications work seamlessly across many different types of devices. Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5 will now allow companies to standardize on a common platform capable of delivering rich and consistent application experiences that perform great across Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS devices.”

Creative Suite 5.5 products are scheduled to ship “within 30 days.”