It’s a warm gray day in Chicago and the Adobe MAX 2007 keynote is kicking off with a bunch of examples of very engaging Rich Internet Application (RIA) experiences. The core positioning is that creating truly engaging experiences requires Adobe technologies. That feels a little fragile in the sense that it is difficult to compete on ideas–there are many examples of great experiences created using competing technologies. I hope the platform value prop will go a level deeper.
Worth noting:
- Moviestar. Launched in August, an update to the Flash player that supports H.264 all the way to 1080p. Looks cool and is a necessary response to Silverlight. Let’s keep in mind that the online video revolution, e.g., YouTube, was driven by the updated video codecs in the Flash player (before that it was impossible to easily experience decent video online). So HD support in the Flash player is a very big deal. More broadband, please.
- AIR. The Adobe Integrated Runtime is nearing v1.0. Lots of companies are experimenting with great apps: from a cool Twitter client to eBay giving you a better way to make sense of the huge number of items available on the site to Frog Design doing an app for Disney travel agents to my own Allurent redefining the way retailers can engage their customers through personal catalogs. Behind the cool stuff lies the bigger strategic play–AIR is Adobe’s move for independence from both the browser and the OS, an attempt to cement the company as a platform player.
