RIA Concept

Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) are Web applications that have many of the characteristics of desktop applications, typically delivered either by way of a site-specific browser, via a browser plug-in, or independently via sandboxes or virtual machines. Adobe Flash and Flex, Java and Microsoft Silverlight are currently the three top frameworks, with penetration rates around 95%, 80% and 45% respectively. Apple has consistently not allowed the use of the top three RIAs in its iPhone, iPod or iPad devices and has instead delivered the applications through its own software and is now promoting HTML5.