Beyond the Browser: The Next Generation of Rich Internet Applications @ AJAX & RIA JOURNAL

Beyond the Browser: The Next Generation of Rich Internet Applications

The growth of Flash and AJAX in Web applications is driven by real market needs - applications that are visually compelling and simple to use gain faster adoption and can be a competitive differentiator, enabling customers, employees, and partners to interact effectively with information and other people. There has been tremendous innovation in applications delivered via the Web; however, browser limitations such as the lack of access to local files, the inability to leverage desktop functionality, and reliance on continuous connectivity ultimately limit the functionality of a browser-based application. In addition, creating these applications is not always a simple process and browser compatibility issues continue to plague front-end developers.

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#4	Gene commented on the 19 Dec 2006 I've posted this elsewhere, but have not received a response, so I'm hoping Kevin sees this and can answer: Since one of Apollo's key benefits is to allow developers to create "sometimes on RIA's", business intelligence must reside on the client side for those moments when the user is "offline". Therefore, serious applications would require a level of protection of the intellectual property contained in the source code. Currently, swf's can be decompiled easily and a developer's only protection is to try to obfuscate the code. But that is an imperfect workaround to the problem. Are there any plans for improving this situation with Apollo? It doesn't sound like it, which is unfortunate. I think a lot of serious applications will be developed using competing technologies if such protection does not exist in Apollo.
#3	Mike Masquith commented on the 8 Dec 2006 The idea that Apollo can somehow avoid 'browser incompatibilities' sounds impossible to me. Every browser out there claims to be compliant with the standards, yet they all have kinks that make them incompatible with some feature. Is Adobe somehow going to succeed with a perfectly standards compliant, glitch free HTML/CSS viewer where no other has ever succeeded? Regardless whether this is a true 'browser', it still has to have some engine that interprets HTML/CSS code, and I can't see how Adobe assumes it will have the perfect engine where all others have (come close but) failed.
#2	Ben Ship commented on the 8 Dec 2006 I'm sorry, but aren't Adobe just stating the obvious here when desktop flash applications have been available for ages? Just take a look at the great work done with Zinc (www.multidmedia.com) which my company has used for years now. It seems to me that this was the true innovation and now Adobe are acting like they're "innovating" with Apollo.
#1	Sim Simeonov commented on the 4 Nov 2006 MAX had great energy. The combination of Macromedia's product momentum and energy and Adobe's design sensibilities made the keynotes worth seeing. Kevin Lynch's quiet credibility worked especially well. Of course, there weren't any Steve Jobs-style mega-announcements but that's the difference between a consumer play (where you keep everything secret till the last second) and a developer/enterprise play (where the Labs concepts works great).