In a semi-public concession of defeat in the Flash vs. Apple war, Adobe released a beta version of its newest program Edge. Edge is a developer program that works with HTML5 instead of Flash.

The move by Adobe is meant to offer an alternative specifically to the existing Flash developers who are used to working in the Flash ecosystem. According to a statement released by Adobe, the new release "allows web designers to bring animation, similar to that created in Flash Professional, to websites using standards likes HTML, JavaScript and CSS."

The beta, released for free on Monday, is out early in order to give developers time to adjust to the new software and also to get needed feedback as Adobe continues to develop the program before its official release on store shelves.

Adobe announced through their spokesperson Vanessa Rios that the company is looking to an official launch of Edge in 2012.

She went on to say, "At this point, we have not made any more specific decisions about the final product as we are just focused on getting it out early -- even well before it's in beta -- so that we can begin engaging with the community to see what features and capabilities they want added as they help us shape the feature of Edge."

The early release by Adobe is also seen as a way to try to build the same kind of support for Edge that already exists for many of Adobe's other developer programs.

So far, the transition from Flash to HTML5 has been slow. There hasn't been a release of a program on par with Flash that allows developers to deliver the same kind of animation-rich designs in HTML5. The move by Adobe could help speed up the transition.

In an interview with TechNewsWorld, FivePaths founder Eric Leland stated "As the trend heads towards HTML 5, designers looking forward will have a strong incentive to learn HTML 5-capable animation frameworks, especially when Adobe develops them."

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