Both technologies are central components of Adobe’s comprehensive rich internet application (RIA) platform and support developers and designers in rapidly creating and distributing rich, customized content and applications. The release of Adobe AIR marks Adobe’s next step in RIA development by combining the real-time capabilities and dynamism of the web with desktop computing power and data resources. Companies that use the internet as a platform can use Adobe’s latest RIA technologies to develop and distribute more engaging applications across browsers, computers and operating systems.
“For 25 years, Adobe has developed innovative technologies, from desktop publishing to multimedia and internet solutions,” said Kevin Lynch, chief technology officer at Adobe Systems. “Now we are advancing the future of digital experiences by enabling our customers to design interactive, expressive applications. This is an exciting time for Adobe, for innovation in the software industry, and for the designers and developers who are driving the internet forward.”
Leading companies adopt Adobe RIA technologies
Companies in entertainment, financial services, media, retail and social networking are already using Adobe’s RIA technologies. Deutsche Bank, Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. and The New York Times Company, for example, use Adobe’s RIA platform to make customer interactions more compelling and effective.
“Adobe has focused on improving web experiences and providing the underlying technologies for developing more interactive and expressive websites and applications. Adobe’s RIA platform addresses current business needs,” said IDC program director Al Hilwa. “The return on investment from RIAs is measurable. An appealing, experience-oriented product presentation in online shops, for example, gives customers a better impression of what they want to buy. This reduces checkout abandonment and increases order volume through additional visualized cross-selling and upselling suggestions.”
Adobe is also providing new applications built with Adobe Flex and delivered through Adobe AIR. These include the Adobe Media Player, currently available in beta, which connects television and the internet and lets users watch their favorite programs at any time and place. Adobe also offers the online word processor Buzzword for collaboration over the internet.
Applications across boundaries
The foundations of the Adobe RIA platform are Adobe AIR, Adobe Flex and Adobe Flash Player. Adobe’s RIA technologies include tools, frameworks, servers, services and runtime environments that work together to support the creation of rich experiences with broad reach. Developers can find resources in the Adobe Developer Connection at developer.adobe.com to begin creating RIAs for browsers and desktops.
Adobe AIR enables developers to use familiar capabilities and web technologies, including HTML, Ajax, PDF, Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex, to create desktop RIAs. AIR applications combine benefits of browser-based RIAs, such as short development times, ease of use and broad reach, with desktop-application capabilities such as reading and writing local files, working with other applications on the computer and storing data locally.
The freely available, open-source-based Flex framework supports the development of interactive RIAs. Adobe Flex Builder 3, an Eclipse-based development tool, accelerates the creation of Flex applications and provides new options for distributing RIAs through Adobe AIR. Integration with Adobe Creative Suite supports collaboration between designers and developers. Testing tools for memory and performance profiling, together with integrated support for automated functional testing, are intended to accelerate development and improve application performance.
Adobe Flash Player, installed on 98 percent of internet-connected computers and hundreds of millions of phones and mobile devices at the time, provides options including audio and video playback with broad reach.
Core components of Adobe AIR are available as open source, including the WebKit HTML engine, the ActionScript Virtual Machine through the Tamarin project, and SQLite database functionality. Adobe supports the open-source community in several areas: the Adobe Flex framework and BlazeDS high-speed data connectivity are available as open source, and Adobe participates in the SQLite Consortium.
