Rich Internet Applications is finally coming of age. Adobe AIR is providing a good platform for developing next generation of Desktop/Internet apps by leveraging the Ajax frameworks. The great thing about Adobe AIR is that it is providing a tool without development entry barriers as converting websites to AIR apps seems to be trivial. Adobe AIR seems to deliver a application layer above the operating systems, which was the promise of Java. Adobe AIR would also empower application development which were not possible in Ajax such as developing a Photoshop application... Now it seems someone already releasing a Photoshop developed on the Flash Platform. As Flash is about to get HD support, Adobe would become the media based applications platform.
Microsoft's Silverlight is going to go head to head with Adobe AIR. As Microsoft also embraces the Adobe's concepts, Software Development and Delivery mechanisms are going to change drastically. Software As a Service Model will become mainstream. Firefox Community would now have lot of catch up to do. However, Site-Specific-browsers, SVG/Canvas and other core pieces of technology are already in place. It would not be long before they also release a completely integrated platform.
Interestingly, these technologies severely undermine the OS as the Application Development. Ubuntu and Linux based Desktops would become more widely accepted as the OS gets commoditized as the users would be more and more engaged with the Adobe AIR/Silverlight /Firefox Platforms.
For Developers, these technologies are providing graphical and visualization capabilities. The programming frameworks with ease to use constructs such as Pie-Menus, Graphs etc. have to be readily available. It would take atleast 2-3 years for the next generation of applications that take advantage of these platforms to emerge.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
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