Adobe Systems reached out to Flash developers in the wake of Apple’s iPad announcement, saying it plans to add support for the iPad’s higher screen resolution to its upcoming Packager for iPhone development tool.
While the iPad offers a significantly larger screen and packs more powerful hardware than the iPhone and iPod Touch, it won’t support Flash when released in the coming months.
Flash developers can use Adobe’s upcoming Packager for iPhone tool to convert Flash content into applications that can run on the iPad. But they won’t immediately be able to take advantage of the iPad screen’s resolution of 1,024 pixels by 768 pixels, the company said in a blog post. That will come later.
“It is our intent to make it possible for Flash developers to build applications that can take advantage of the increased screen size and resolution of the iPad,” the post said.
The iPhone and iPod touch both have screen resolutions of 480 pixels by 320 pixels, with a pixel density of 163 pixels per inch. The iPad screen has a pixel density of 132 pixels per inch.
Adobe also asked for developers interested in developing iPad applications using Flash to get in touch.
“We are looking for developers and designers who have a specific app in mind to be submitted to the iTunes App Store within the next two months,” the blog post said.
The iPhone and iPod touch were the first devices to popularize surfing the Web from a small screen, using multitouch input to allow users to zoom in and out of Web sites that were originally designed to be seen on larger screens. But the iPhone and iPod touch don’t support Flash, which is widely used for online multimedia content, and Apple hasn’t signalled that it’s interested in adding Flash support to its line of mobile devices.
Packager for iPhone will be included with the upcoming release of Adobe Flash Professional CS5.