Adobe’s strong initiative to boost development of India-centric mobile apps

by deep on July 30th, 2011 7

You can call it post-PC device war or rise of mobile devices, the fact is that PC is no longer the dominant device among consumers. Mobile devices (both smartphone and tablet) are equipped with powerful operating systems such as iOS, Andriod, Blackberry and Windows 7, enough to deliver the same rich experience as PC.

So the main question is not which OS is going to win. The future is going to be the age of variety of platforms with different standards and different value proposition. Therefore, the right question is how developers are going to leverage all these variety of platforms with efficiency. The answer lies in the emerging developing platform with cross publishing ability, for sure.

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to attend the bloggers meet up hosted by ADOBE to showcase their new developer platform and the future ahead. With sensible hash-tag #adobesocial the event was kick started with an informal note on the mobile story by Mala Sharma, VP Product Marketing, Adobe. The program was a part of the largest 3 day Adobe Flash Platform Summit 2011, outside North America

After few minutes it was immediate that Adobe was building strong bridging platforms for developers to launch their product in multiple platforms in one go. The story of how FLASH revolutionized the web digital experience was inspiring to hear, with a hint that the new Flash Builder platform is going to do the same for mobile era and new digital TVs apps.

After the introduction, it was time for the DEMO. The two Adobe evangelists Renaun Erickson (@renaun) and Duane Nickull (@duanechaos), went on to demonstrate the 3D capabilities of the Flash through detail rendering of water surfaces, which was amazing. Though there are lot of other 3D tools available, to see Flash do the same is cool, as this means that more developers will be able to leverage the feature in their applications with ease.

Photo by @Brajeshwar : Left: Renaun Right: Duane

The table was full of multi platform devices like iphone, ipad, Android and other tablets, all running the same application build in a single platform. Renaun quickly showed how an application built in flash builder could be pushed to multiple platforms in one click of a button, which was interesting. After the multi-platform demonstration, Renaun and Duane went on to demonstrate the power of flash to communicate with multiple devices through local network. The demonstration included a CANOE moving across multiple devices controlled by other mobile devices, which acted as a controller. The demo received huge applause, as it showed the possibility of different kind of applications which can be built through the platform.

3D water Modeling

While moving on the Q&A section, there was a moment of eagerness as Apple’s take on the Flash was mentioned. But Duane and Renaun was prompt to answer how HTML5 is much loved technology by ADOBE and has been closely working to build the strong framework to include them on Adobe’s developing platforms. More importantly, they also reflected on the fact that Dreamweaver has been supporting the technology before any other platforms on the market. The meetup also had Perfios, Personal Finance Software Application, showcasing their application running on different platforms.

After the demo, networking with the people on the new technology and playing around with the devices was cool. But you might think why this is so important? Well if you are not aware, Adobe has launched a major campaign to focus on Indian Mobile market through their developing platforms. Ben Forta, Director-Evangelism, Adobe Systems have stated that India is a country with over 850 million mobile devices and this is an opportune moment for the industry to leapfrog into the next wave of digital experience. Adobe has been collaborating with Indian corporations like redBus, Perfios and Standard Chartered Bank to offer highly interactive mobile apps for Indian consumers. Also, Adobe has been active on a non-profit organization, Jannagraha to help their “I Paid A Bribe” Initiative, which showcases analytics app build over Adobe platform.

One think which struck me throughout the event was that Adobe was not only targeting to increase their Adobe developers community, but that they were also hitting the right kind of market like finance, travel and social cause, where the opportunity of great mobile product is possible. Besides that, I think Adobe was humble enough to say that they are ready to work with any technology and platform that dealt with digital experience.

Photos from Event:

Kick Starting the MeetUp

Aakar, me and Duane (Photo taken by : Hemanth Sharma)

The above picture was created using the Snap Stall. Snap Stall is a Multi-touch and Multi-platform application developed in Adobe® Flash® that allows you to take your picture, customize your looks with various hairstyles and hats that are branded with Adobe products and finally choose your custom background and publish your Snap Stall Card. I was demonstrated the app by the developer who told me how the app was build within weeks time.