Although vendor-written, this contributed piece does not advocate a position that is particular to the author's employer and has been edited and approved by Network World editors.

Sometimes if you can't beat 'em, it's better to join 'em. Take what Adobe is doing in the HTML5 space, even though momentum behind standards-based HTML5 presents a serious challenge to Adobe's own Flash rich Internet plug-in technology.

Google is enabling developers who use the Adobe Flash Professional developer tool to convert their animations to HTML5 via an extension based on Google's Swiffy conversion technology.

With their larger screens, long-lasting batteries, and powerful CPUs, tablets seem well suited for the kinds of rich multimedia applications that confound ordinary smartphones. But Apple famously won't allow Adobe Flash on its iOS mobile devices, including the iPad. This fued creates an ideal opportunity for competing tablet makers to step in and fill the void.

Adobe's Flash Player 10.2 for Google Android devices will be available March 18, offering preliminary support for Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets, such as the Motorola Xoom, Adobe said on Friday.

With upgrades to its Flash Builder, Flex, and AIR application development technologies Monday, Adobe Systems is taking a decidedly mobile bent.

Look out, Apple. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) is now in the tablet business.

Adobe released a handful of patches this week to address serious security vulnerabilities. The most relevant update for the vast majority of users is the patch for Adobe Flash Player, but IT admins should also be aware of the updates for ColdFusion and Flash Media Server.

The sparring between Apple and Adobe, on whether Flash belongs on mobile devices such as the iPhone, has gone from philosophical to real. Steve Jobs wrote in an open letter that he's yet to see Flash running on any mobile device, and Adobe responded by saying it'll ship Flash Player 10.1 for Android phones as a public preview in May, with a general release in June. Finally, Android will demonstrate whether Flash on the iPhone would've been as bad as Jobs makes it out to be. I think not, and here are five reasons why:

Adobe delighted on Monday the smartphone world, when it announced that Flash Player 10.1 will be available by the end of the year on BlackBerry, WinMo, Palm WebOS, Google Android, and Symbian phones.

HTML 5, a groundbreaking upgrade to the prominent Web presentation specification, could become a game-changer in Web application development, one that might even make obsolete such plug-in-based rich Internet application (RIA) technologies as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun JavaFX.

If only it were as easy to build a Web application as it is to design one in Illustrator and Photoshop. Maybe it will be someday, and maybe that someday is closer than we might think. Adobe has certainly succeeded in shrinking the distance between design and development with its latest batch of RIA tools: Adobe Flex 4 SDK, Adobe Flash Builder 4 (the Flex Builder IDE renamed), and Adobe Flash Catalyst, all recently made available in public beta.