Adobe today announced updates to its Flash and AIR developer software that will enable games and applications created with the software to run faster on a variety of platforms, including mobile and connected TVs.

According to a press release, applications created with Adobe Flash Player 11 and Adobe AIR 3 will run on Android, Apple iOS (via AIR), BlackBerry Tablet OS, Mac OS, Windows, connected TVs and other platforms.

Adobe promises console-quality 2D and 3D games over the Internet to all of these platforms, while media companies can take advantage of new features to deliver protected feature-length, HD video through the Web, in mobile apps, and in surround sound for connected TVs.

New features of the release include: accelerated 2D/3D Graphics; AIR Native Extensions, which will give developers access to native device data, including sensors and technologies like NFC; content protection; HD video across platforms; rental and subscriptions support.

Adobe boasts that Flash Player is supported on more than 98 percent of Internet-connected PCs today and by the end of 2011, the company expects more than 200 million smartphones and tablets including Apple iOS devices to support Flash-based applications via Adobe AIR. By the end of 2015, the number of devices that will support Adobe AIR is expected to increase to 1 billion.

Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 will be publicly available in early October. Flash Builder and Flex, Adobe's open source framework for building mobile, Web and desktop apps, will offer support for the new features in an upcoming release before the end of the year.