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Desktop web-app runtime may propel document format vendor into platform market

According to the theory of cloud computing, application functionality will be delivered by utility providers via the Internet to dumb terminals with no local computing power.

With the release of AIR, the ‘Adobe Integrated Runtime’ in February 2008, information delivery software vendor Adobe has proven that the truth may be less cut and dried than that.

AIR allows web applications to operate as if they were desktop apps, appearing in the device’s list of applications and running outside the browser.

Perhaps more importantly, such applications execute in a local memory cache so that users can continue to operate them after the device has been disconnected from the Internet. Data is synched with the application provider’s servers once the device reconnects.

While there are different runtimes for each operating system (Windows and MacOS versions are available now, Linux will follow), the same web application can be executed on all of these versions regardless of the underlying OS. This offers software developers a shortcut to avoid the costly and time-consuming task of repurposing applications for different operating systems.

Companies that have already used advance copies of AIR include eBay, which has made a desktop auction-trading system that allows users to buy and sell merchandise without entering the browser. Deutsche Bank and AOL are also early adopters.

For Adobe, the release of AIR represents a continuation of its bid to become a credible software platform provider for the cloud computing age by enabling developers to build so-called ‘rich Internet applications’ (RIAs).

This is founded on its 2006 acquisition of Macromedia, the inventor of the popular Flash technology, which allows browser animation and interactivity. Adobe built on Flash to produce Flex, a development platform for RIAs that execute within the browser, the third version of which was released in February.

The supposed value proposition of RIAs is that increased graphical complexity and interactivity engages the consumer more than traditional websites, eventually producing greater customer loyalty and cross-selling opportunities.

Financial services provider Intelligence Finance used Adobe’s Flex platform for a mortgage calculation application for its website, precipitating a 15% jump in sales.

Volkswagen has also used Flex for its relaunched UK website. Chris Jenkins, head of interactive design for Tribal DDB, which built the new site, says his client was keen to make the site more entertaining.

“The previous website scored well on navigability and availability of information,” he explains, “but the company’s view – that that was the most important thing – had changed. They were seeing other car manufacturers’ websites becoming more entertainment driven.”

The site, www.vw.co.uk, now allows visitors to try out different colours and customisations of its entire range of cars, something that Jenkins hopes they will actually find entertaining.

Adobe’s strategy supposes that more companies feel the same way as Volkswagen – that the way to attract customers’ loyalty online is with good-looking, playful websites. While its competition may have more experience in the software platform game, especially Microsoft with its Silverlight technology, Adobe has the designers on side.

Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash are all familiar to web designers trying to inject flair into their creations. If Adobe can exploit that familiarity and attract designers to its web application development tools, it could become a serious – if unusually well turned-out – software platform provider.

Further reading

Microsoft working on new language ‘D’ will be a declarative programming language for the service-oriented age

The third way Combining on-demand software with on-premise code might prove to be the most powerful software paradigm yet. But the blend will not be without its difficulties

Find more stories in the SOA & Development Briefing Room