Adobe has upgraded its Flash Player software, and released new technology and tools to help developers create rich web applications.

The Adobe Flex 2 product range includes a free, entry-level Flex 2 Software Development Kit (SDK), designed to encourage more developers to create Flash applications.

“We are targeting a large group of developers [so] it’s important to have a productivity toolset,” said Adobe’s Andrew Shorten. “This was not strong in previous versions.”

The release also features Flex Builder 2, an Eclipse-based integrated development environment that includes pre-built controls and services for application development and user-interface design.

Shorten said Flash Player 9 offers faster application runtime capabilities due to a newly optimised ActionScript Virtual Machine. He added, “We are trying to make it feel like a desktop application – but in a plug-in.”