Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/65907
n n n n Trends & Technology access to all the type styles in the universe (that's how it looked to us). Developers can pay a low fee for access to the type—the only catch is that they have to keep paying or dull, boring typefaces will be substituted when the subscription lapses. With the subscription, at least customers won't have to keep paying that additional fee, and Adobe has one more hook into the customer. There's a pattern emerging here, and it is that Adobe sees just as much value from maintaining an ongoing relationship with the Adobe Bets on HTML5 for Mobile Edge will enable new content development At the end of last year, Adobe announced that it does not plan to continue de- velopment of Flash for the mobile platform. Still, the press seemed surprised that Chrome for Android will not run Flash. Group Product Manager Bill Howard spelled it out again on an Adobe blog, saying, "Adobe is no longer developing Flash Player for mobile browsers, and, thus, Chrome for Android Beta does not support Flash content." You can almost hear the "Well, duh" at the end of that sentence, can't you? The basic browser on Android phones does support Flash, so content devel- opers are not being left high and dry if users are willing to switch browsers to see the content. Instead, says Howard, Adobe is concentrating on HTML5 for multimedia in mobile. Adobe has announced that its Edge product, which is still in development, will be included with the Creative Cloud products. Edge is Adobe's new tool for creating HTML5 interactive content. Because it is part of the HTML5 initiative, it combines resources from HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Its sister product is Adobe Muse, a WYSIWYG development tool geared to graphic designers for creating HTML Web sites without code. At Jon Peddie Research, we have not had a chance to play with this yet, but we've talked to Web designers who are very enthusiastic about it. In his presentation for press and analysts earlier in February, Adobe Vice Presi- dent and General Manager David Wadhwani said he is not giving an inch on Flash in targeted applications such as the Web, PCs, TVs, and so forth, adding that Adobe intends to stay out in front with that product. HTML5 and Edge will be a common-denominator meeting standards, but with Flash, they can push the envelope. It's a virtuous circle, says Wadhwani, who notes that as the Web and devices get more powerful and the standards are updated, the improvements in Flash can get pushed into HTML5 and Edge if it makes sense. Adobe is repositioning Flash a bit, and company representatives maintain they are developing it for rich and immersive applications and PCs via Adobe AIR or the Flash Player, depending on which is appropriate for the content. The way Adobe is seeing it now is that Flash can deliver more heavyweight content, like games and premium video. If the client system, like the PC, has the horsepower, Flash can stream. If the system is constrained, as it is in mobile devices and TVs, then the content can be packaged in Adobe AIR. In other words, Flash is moving up the food chain. Also last year, Adobe introduced hardware acceleration for 2D and 3D graphics in Flash for PCs. In the future, hardware acceleration will come to the mobile platform via content packaged in AIR. Wadhwani also underlines Adobe's commitment to HTML5 and notes that Adobe is an active member of the standards group, adding its own IP into the mix. And, Howard mentions CSS Regions, which allows more page layout flex- ibility on the Web, and says Adobe is collaborating with HTML5 members on CSS Shaders, which will allow cinematic and visual effects via HTML5. Howard also says Adobe is considering HTML5's Shadow DOM proposal to standardize the integration of rich interface components for developers. All of this is pretty interesting because it means that Adobe is finding more and more places where it makes sense to reach out and work with the development community, rather than go it alone with Flash and do battle with HTML5. —Kathleen Maher 34 April/May 2012 creative people who are its customers for the point products and their employers who use the content for publishing and advertising. Adobe's product strategy links its products for creating content with its products being developed to monetize content and also to track usage. Adobe is keeping its customers close by build- ing an environment for them to work in. It's building links to end customers: content con- sumers through its online marketing tools. For instance, Business Catalyst is a variation on the products being developed for large publishers on Adobe's Omniture side of the business. Business Catalyst can report back on the behavior of visi- tors to a Web site. Similarly, Adobe's enterprise customers using Omniture pay a regular fee for Adobe's technology to track the ways readers in- teract with content—Do they click on an ad or jump to specific sections?—and, thus, they can provide real data to advertisers. Adobe laid the groundwork for its new strategy at its Max Conference for the user community. Privacy advocates may balk at the use of the term "virtuous circle" to describe the infor- mation links that Adobe is building between the different groups of customers who use its products, but it certainly has the potential to be a lucrative circle. Also, practically speaking, enabling people who create content to real- ize more revenue from their work will lead to more content and, it is devoutly to be hoped, better content. Adding It Up Adobe gets systems. The firm has long had a systems-oriented approach from the first days of Acrobat and its Knowledge Worker prod- ucts. For a company that builds products for artists, it has a long history of thinking about the entire workflow. It has viewed its creative base as a people who, ultimately, work in some way for an enterprise. Put in a more unkind way, Adobe's custom- ers are cogs in a machine, and Adobe serves the machine because somewhere along the way, the art created is used by a company, or a stu- dio, or a magazine. If it's digital, it gets distrib- uted. And, none of this is a bad thing. Adobe wants to stay in touch with its customers, but the company is also enabling its customers to do a better job and stay in touch with one an- other and the people they're working for. n Kathleen Maher is a contributing editor to CGW, a senior analyst at Jon Peddie Research, a Tiburon, CA-based consultancy specializing in graphics and multimedia, and editor in chief of JPR's "TechWatch." She can be reached at Kathleen@jonpeddie.com.