"As a development tool, the difference [as opposed to Flash Player 10] is not so much about Flash -- it's about 3D," said Julien Terraz, creative technologist at Digitas. "You have to manage 3D assets and 3D concepts, but what you are now doing with 3D in Flash is exactly same way as you create 3D for games. You send the same kind of information to the GPU. Flash just opens this up [to interactive developers]."

"The news about 3D and GPU-accelerated 2D is great," said RJ Owen. "But what's really interesting is that Adobe seems to be putting boundaries around what Flash is good for again. Four or five years ago Adobe was saying 'Flash is good for everything, Flash is the answer to all of your experiences'. Now it's like 'Flash is great for games and video that needs DRM, but for your general Web experience, for a site, then use HTML'. They've put Flash back in its proper context today."

The Flash and AIR releases also deliver new features to support cinema-quality HD video, native 64-bit optimisations, high-quality HD video conferencing, and a powerful, flexible architecture for leveraging native device and platform capabilities. Stage 3D for mobile platforms including Android, Apple iOS and BlackBerry Tablet OS will be available in an upcoming production release of Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 due in the first half of 2012.