Adobe AIR set to take flight at Nasdaq, charity

"Most people probably will be attracted to AIR because they'll have a better experience: It will run faster, feel more lightweight and give them the impression that the Web application will behave more like their desktop apps," said Paul McNamara, Coghead's CEO.

Indeed, Paul Fu, vice president of corporate development and CIO of Taiwan-based freight and logistics company Morrison Express said his users have been asking for the type of offline synchronization that AIR will provide. Morrison tapped Coghead to build its hosted CRM tool, Fu added.

"[Offline synchronization] would be very big for us," he said. "Having access to your data in an offline capability would be a huge boon to us. Sales representatives are not always near a computer, and [online access] doesn't help you when you are on an airplane."

Dana Gardner, an analyst at research firm Interarbor Solutions, said that the interest in AIR-type tools by software-as-a-service providers is a good indication that enterprises will take notice of the technology.