The worlds of online and offline applications came closer to converging Monday as Adobe Systems released its AIR 1.0 and Flex 3 platforms. The platforms include tools, frameworks, services, servers and runtimes, and enable developers to create rich Internet applications (RIA) that combine the Webs real-time updates with the desktops speed and access to local files. The applications can be run in the Flash player as well as in the Adobe Media Player, now in beta release, which the company said will be "a fusion of TV and the Internet."
BIG THING IS AIR
"AIR is the big thing" in this release, said Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst with industry firm Forrester, although he noted that there are no obvious improvements over AIRs beta releases. He said the platform gives developers a sandbox in which existing skills in HTML, Ajax, Flex and Flash can be utilized to "blend the previously separate development models -- development for the desktop and development for the Web."
Flex 3 is a free, open-source framework. AIR and the AIR SDK are also free, and large parts of AIR, including the WebKit HTML engine, Tamarin ActionScript Virtual Machine, and SQLite local database functionality, are also open source.
The blending of desktop and Web applications could impact many e-commerce and other business experiences on the Web. AIRs momentum, said Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch, shows the "real need for businesses to engage with customers in more effective ways."
AIR-DEPLOYED APPLICATIONS
Adobe said the momentum includes AIR-deployed applications from such companies as AOL, eBay, NASDAQ, The New York Times, Nickelodeon/MTV Network, Sharp and others.
NASDAQ has an RIA for the desktop that allows financial pros to replay market activity at any point in time. With it, brokers can remotely show customers exactly what was taking place when an order was placed. Adobe said AIR "allows for instant response to an extremely large data set, something not possible in a browser."
The Times ShifD, launched today, is an RIA that enables users to shift content between a computer and a mobile device. There is both a browser-based version of ShifD and a desktop version. Times Vice President Michael Zimbalist said applications such as ShifD can help point customers toward a device-independent future.
And a RIA from Deutsche Bank alerts customers about account activity and any standing instructions. The bank said the RIA allows customers to receive instant desktop alerts without remaining logged on to their Internet service.
Even as AIR/Flexs momentum grows, Microsoft has been positioning its Silverlight technology as a rival. Hammond said Silverlights development-tool strategy may be better integrated, but its 1.0 version does not yet have a .Net runtime. Microsoft now has an added impetus, he said, to get 2.0 "out the door and into more developers hands."
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