Aral Balkan

Adobe released several new web applications this year and many more are on the way.

In a relatively short timeframe, Adobe acquired an online word processor, created a cool color tool, released a free document sharing tool and announced online versions of Photoshop and Premiere.

Now you might think that this is simply Adobe's latest attempt to grow the company by entering waters previously traversed by the likes of Google and Yahoo! But I feel that there's more to it. Specifically, there is one important advantage that having popular web applications will give Adobe: a new avenue for increasing the rate of Flash Player penetration.

I realized this today when I used Kuler and it asked me to upgrade to the latest Flash Player. Now I'm sure that Kuler doesn't use H.264 video but it still requires the latest Flash Player. And, I'm pretty sure that we're going to see Buzzword and the other Adobe applications start doing the same. If Buzzword becomes the online equivalent of Microsoft Word, you can be sure that a lot of people are going to upgrade to the latest Flash Player very quickly in order to keep working on their documents. Ditto for Photoshop and Premiere.

This is part of the reason why I predict that Adobe will keep these applications free in an effort to garner the largest user base it can. A user base that it can then transition almost immediately to the latest Flash Player the moment one is released.

Good one, Adobe!

Comments

• Yeah I remember the early days of being stuck on Flash player 5 for a couple of years even though 6 had all these cool new features I wanted to use. Wow how times have changed.

  by Campbell on 2007-12-05 21:33:36

• Aral, I hope not :) (ie not saying that as a "Microsoft hopes not") as if you were to acquire a Web07 (heh) Application like Buzzword and it's main focus was to help drive adoption and that's it? then Adobe probably will need to think about other investments that can support this habbit (keep in mind $3bn doesn't go as far as one would think). I'd argue that Buzzword would be better suited towards complementing existing software solutions. In that LiveCycle Buzzword would have an interesting amount of synergy should Adobe explore this further. Kuler compliments the creative suite (it's got a plus for stimulating upgrade adoption paths but that'd be more bonus round surely). I don't have the inside drop, suffice to say I'd worry if the latest round of acquisitions were simply "seeding buys", as that'd have to weigh them down in terms of assets / roadmap ahead. (Note: this is a personal opinion and not of my respective employer Microsoft). - Scott Barnes

  by Scott Barnes on 2007-12-09 05:07:32

• Sadly, I suspect, as MS are doing with Silverlight - this is simply a way to make people pay for something on the internet. Currently I can develop a great app using all free software. However, if I want to create the same app in a world where Flash player has taken over from the browser as user agent of choice... it's going to cost me £500 to even get started. :(

  by LG on 2007-12-12 19:02:38

• Hi LG, You can create Flash content and applications using nothing but open source tools, libraries and servers. To get started, take a look at OSFlash.

  by Aral on 2007-12-13 10:14:19

• That's one of the things that makes the flash platform great, you can guarantee that an overwhelming majority of users will be on a very recent version. Makes it so easy to develop to, and you don't feel so bad about lumping the few older version users in with the non-flash users. And it offers so many cool features that the browsers are way behind on, eg. I've just written a little javascript tool that wraps up some flash functionality to make cookies cross browser. http://www.ts0.com/2007/12/cross-browser-cookies.asp

  by Thom Shannon on 2007-12-05 18:31:29

• Yeah... This is why I think they created the Adobe Media Player too. So that people will start using AIR.

  by Mikko Haapoja on 2007-12-05 18:26:12

• In Boston, we say: That's "sm-ahhh-t" (aka that's smart) ...

  by Scott Janousek on 2007-12-05 18:24:40

• I think its all about the money an online application suite with the credibility of adobe will bring. eventually everthing is going to be online anyway

  by yohami on 2007-12-05 19:25:00

• I have to agree. Adobe is doing the right thing here. Flash player has really been extremely innovative. I am expecting to see some large improvements in the Javascript engine in flash which add some extremely significant improvements to it. These improvements have been worked on with the javascript standards body. Microsoft has been foot-dragging, so we may never see these improvements in IE. This new Javascript engine has been released as open source and the Mozilla team has decided to adopt it. This is really something I like to see. Innovation, using standards and making open source technology when it is beneficial to all parties. Adobe should be commended.

  by scott schmitz on 2007-12-07 03:30:25

• @Ben: That's actually a very good point. It will be interesting to see the reaction from that sector. @Keith: Keep preachin', brother. One day we'll save the poor uneducated masses from the evil clutches of the Global Flash Conspiracy! :)

  by Aral on 2007-12-08 11:45:35

• Well, I think it's a little bit of everyone's respective theories. I mean, that's quite an investment to be doing it simply to push the Flash player--it's not exactly like it needs much of a push. Sure, it doesn't hurt to have people upgrade but you can thank youtube and myspace for that! In addition to the obvious "showcase their technology" and "push the player"... I think the BIG reason (that I don't see mentioned much above) is that there's an evolution for Adobe to "software as a service" (SaaS). In some ways I feel this is in direct competition with their tools customers--but they often also include opportunities for us to leverage their technology. Frankly, they also sometimes create tools only available to themselves that effectively make for an unfair playing field. (See screensharing for the most obvious example.) I'm not saying "wah, it's not fair!"... but just that Adobe is going to have a tricky time being everything to everyone if that means there are conflicts. (See global arms sales for an example of that.) Seriously, I doubt that the driving factor for any of these apps is anything more than to make money or to lay the groundwork to make money later. Sure, the fact that it showcases the technology and makes people upgrade is nice, but that's the gravy (or frosting).

  by Phillip Kerman on 2007-12-09 17:30:38

• [...] my predictions for 2008, I talked about how we will be seeing more RIAs in 2008 -- both from Adobe and third parties -- how Silverlight is not going to have a widespread impact (although is [...]

  by Web ‘08 predictions: The rise of RIAs and the 3D web at Aral Balkan on 2007-12-07 11:56:58

• I have to disagree. If Buzzword is ever able to gain a large market share, locking people out of their documents unless they upgrade would be a surefire way to stop adoption in its tracks and cause a huge backlash. You have to remember that there are millions upon millions of corporate employees who don't have the permissions to upgrade their Flash Player. If rapid adoption really was a major goal, Adobe's money would be much better spent in convincing sites like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, et al to upgrade their users (which most do already). Like it or not, the traffic of those sites will continue to dwarf that of any RIA Adobe (or anyone else) builds for the foreseeable future. I think the main purpose of most of these apps is simply to showcase the capabilities of the Flash Platform and spark interest. In the case of Premiere and Photoshop its also a case of giving people a taste of what those tools do so that when they outgrow the online versions they'll be more likely to buy the desktop versions.

  by Ben Clinkinbeard on 2007-12-07 21:54:09

• OK, I don't have Flash installed at all. I've tried installing it and having FlashBlock installed, and even that configuration eats up a lot of memory. It's just horrible. I've tried to explain to people the evils of Flash and I finally get it through their heads what Flash is and they'll be like "God, I hate that" but they never uninstall it or anything. I did read some blog entry that pointed to Buzzword without explaining what it was. All I got when I got to the website was the "your browser isn't supported" message, which always sucks.

  by Keith on 2007-12-08 07:14:25

• LG, you can compile with the free to use flex compiler from the flex sdk any as3 code, including swc and other stuff

  by oxygen on 2008-12-31 20:30:04