I've seen a few questions asked here about Adobe AIR, although an overall viability review is hard to find (both here and on Google). Some questions that could contribute to such a review:
- Is Adobe AIR the best cross-OS-compatible, browser-less runtime for RIAs?
"Best" is very subjective. A better question is "Does it solve a problem you're having". I would argue that AIR is not browserless. It embeds the webkit engine and you can build AIR apps using HTML without Flex.
I might argue that AIR is a browser. Adobe built it to provide a slightly looser security sandbox for Flash Platform applications. I also think of AIR as a way to deploy web applications to the desktop, not as a way to build desktop applications. this is slowly changing as AIR introduces features, such as NativeProcess, however such tools also ruin the cross platform compatibility.
* What are drawbacks unique to AIR? What are positives unique to AIR?
It's really cool if you want to deploy applications to the desktop and the browser. Games come to mind as one thing. I think it'd work real well as a desktop front end to a "cloud" style service.
The AutoUpdate features are nice.
It is still stuck in a security sandbox, though, so AIR applications have limited access to the desktop. this is good from a security standpoint, but can be frustrating from some applications. The NativeProcess functionality expands the desktop integration, but also interferes with cross compatibility.
* Is AIR expected to grow and develop for years to come? Who's theindustry leader?
Yes. I expect AIR to grow and develop for years to come. Why is the industry leader for what?