Posts Tagged ‘Rich Internet Applications’

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iPhone Roadmap – What’s missing?

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Last week, Apple unveiled its roadmap for the iPhone. The plans announced mainly fall into two categories, supporting iPhone in the enterprise, and opening up the iPhone’s software development kit (SDK) to third-party developers.

For enterprises, Apple is licensing the Microsoft ActiveSync technology to add support for Microsoft Exchange within its current iPhone applications. At the same time, they have also announced that they are allowing third-party developers to license their native SDK for the creation of iPhone applications.

There are already 1,000 web applications available today for the iPhone, and 71% of mobile browser traffic in the US is coming from iPhone users. Now the only thing missing from the equation is support for rich Internet applications (RIAs). Rumours of Flash support have been swirling around since the official announcement of the device, but Apple hasn’t confirmed anything.

Now with the advancements made by Microsoft with its upcoming version of Silverlight 2.0, Apple has a choice of paths. They can either opt to support RIAs though Adobe Flash Player or through Microsoft Silverlight. Or maybe they will opt to support both. We eagerly await Apple’s next move.

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The Pendulum Swings Back

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

Back in September, I wrote about an interesting article in Dr. Dobb’s Journal about how the pendulum is swinging back toward the delivery of desktop-like experiences. With Adobe’s official announcement of its new Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) yesterday, the pendulum has picked up even more momentum. AIR allows application designers to think beyond the browser to cost-effectively add desktop support into their clients’ web interactions and deliver RIAs in a partially connected environment.

Even though AIR is just out, there are already a number of early deployments that range from consumer-facing media players, games, personal shopping assistants and product configurators, through to business-oriented data-entry and dashboard tools. Big name brands like eBay, Nickelodeon, and NASDAQ are already delivering applications that leverage AIR.

The biggest hurdle toward adoption is helping those responsible for client communications understand the potential of AIR and how to leverage it within the scope of client interactions.

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Spry 1.7 is Coming Soon

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

Would it be wrong to say that just a few years ago when rich internet applications (RIAs) were starting to make serious strides on the market, Adobe was confronted with a dilemma: they would either need to promote Flex as an alternative to AJAX solutions, which would polarize the market, or to just embrace (and potentially lead) the AJAX market.

Adobe settled on the latter, and brought forth Spry, a framework for AJAX. This was a good move, as it seems clear today that Flex and AJAX have a symbiotic relationship. Google (author of the famous Google Web Toolkit for AJAX), Yahoo (author of the equally famous Yahoo! User Interface Library toolkit), and many other mainstream players consistently use AJAX and other tools, such as Flex, in their projects.

In retrospect, Spry was an excellent investment for Adobe not only because of the great value it brings to the developer community and to Adobe itself, but also because it saved them from a potential public relations nightmare.

I think the lesson to be learned from this, is that not all communications come in the shape of a formal press release, a blog posting, or a hosted event. Spry is a very successful communications vehicle disguised as a product.

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RIAs and Business Intelligence

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

Back in November, I posted about the trend of leveraging rich Internet applications (RIAs) for presenting key data and information for decision-makers and task-oriented workers. This trend seems to be picking up momentum quickly as there has been a swell of activity from companies like SAP and BEA around RIAs and business intelligence.

Another major player threw its ring in the RIA business intelligence ring today, with Information Builders’ announcement of its new offering. Information Builders provides software and support to more than 12,000 customers, including many Fortune 100 companies and US federal government agencies. Its new offering, WebFOCUS FLEX Enable, is an application engine that allows developers and analysts to create custom interactive and animated dashboards. What’s interesting about this offering is the self-service model that it provides. Unlike some of the finished solutions announced, this is an application engine that allows developers to build what they need.

This trend toward RIA-based business intelligence solutions is one I am certain we will see more and more of in the coming months.

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Inside RIA: A New RIA Community Site

Friday, January 25th, 2008

Last week a new rich internet application website launched. The site, called Inside RIA, is an online community developed by O’Reilly, and sponsored by Adobe. Unlike many of the RIA-focused sites that include short postings and news, this one seems to offer more original content in the form of blog postings by industry experts, and feature articles from community members.

The site is broken down into three main categories: Design, Development and Standards. Plans are to grow the site in the coming months to include articles, news, events, learning resources, and opinion pieces. One of the first features articles, “What is RIA”, asks site experts and community members to explain what RIA means to them.

If you are following the trends in RIA this is one site you’ll want to bookmark.

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A Few RIAs that Caught My Eye

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

Over the past week or so I’ve seen a few interesting rich internet applications (RIAs) land in my inbox that deserve some attention. These are not necessarily best in breed, but are good, recent examples of how RIAs can really improve a user’s interaction with an application.

First is the new online version of Quicken. This application in its original form was a good solid performer but was screaming for some rich graphics and enhanced interactivity, and Intuit delivered. The new version of Quicken includes a dashboard-like view with key data that allows users to easily and quickly drill down to see details. The info is delivered in a very visual and clear way, making it much easier for users to visualize their accounts. There are also a number of mobile improvements to help users access and update their info from afar.

New RIA interface allows users to better visualize their accounts.

The second application is Babbel, a RIA built in Flex that helps users learn a new language. Users can pick from Spanish, French, Italian, German and English and can login to take a series of quizzes where they match images with spoken words. There is also a social element to the site where users can communicate with each other and can even contribute content.

Learn a new language with Babbel's new RIA-based interface.

These are two examples of useful applications for consumers that benefit from the rich visual and visualization elements of an RIA.

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Is 2008 the Year of RIA Hardware?

Thursday, January 10th, 2008

Last year, one of the hot topics amongst the technology media was the growth in interest, adoption, and announcements around Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). It seemed like every week there was a new story about development tools, technology announcements, beta launches and more.

Now, just a few days into 2008, the buzz seems to be expanding to include hardware. With the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) happening this week and Macworld slated for next week, the rumors are flying. Predictions range from a new breed of device that combines an OLED screen with enough flash memory, CPU power and a wireless connection to deliver a rich web experience at a fraction of the cost of a full desktop, to Apple and Adobe teaming up on a new hybrid iPod Touch-like device for RIAs.

Intriguing predictions, but at this point they’re just rumors. It will be interesting to track the progress in the coming months to see if RIA hardware does start to make waves.

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What 2008 May Bring

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

As the year comes to a close, it’s always an opportunity to reflect on what’s happened in the past 12 months and to look at what’s on the horizon.

This past year was an active one, with major shifts in a number of areas. Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), which have been on the radar since 2002, finally started to garner attention and gain traction with organizations. Major announcements from technology leaders like Adobe, Microsoft and Curl have made friendly and stable development technologies available. As well, consumers have responded positively to early applications making RIAs a viable next step, even for enterprises.

Software as a Service (SaaS), has also made significant in-roads this year and is stacking up to be a “technology to watch” for 2008. The concept of loosely coupled technologies behind the scenes, some of which are delivered as services, is a smart model that provides organizations with the economies of scale to be competitive and the flexibility to grow.

For 2008, I’m looking forward to seeing new versions of Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight. Both of which seem to be promising technology to keep an eye on. It will also be interesting to see what happens with AJAX and Java in this mix too.

Finally, I’m looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen with the mobile industry. For years now it’s been ready to explode. Maybe 2008 is the year?

We’ll have to wait and see. Until then, Season’s Greetings and a Happy New Year!

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New Public Betas of Adobe Flex and AIR

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

Today, Adobe released the Beta 3 versions of both Adobe Flex and AIR. You may ask “Why should I care about beta software”? Well, both of these applications will be impactful if you are building, or considering building, Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). While not the only solution on the market, Flex is one of the most widely used technologies for enterprises RIAs.

What makes this release interesting? It delivers:

  • Great tools for data aggregation and for visually presenting metrics that will contribute to decision making.
  • More freedom for end-users to access tools and information without necessarily being connected to the internet.
  • Great economies of scale in creating online and offline applications in from a single effort.

We suspect that this release is a feature-complete version of what we will see in the final on which is anticipated to be available in early February 2008. If you are looking for a copy, it’s available on the Adobe Labs site.

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RIAs and the Information Workplace

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

There is an interesting article over at Read/Write Web about Forrester’s prediction that RIAs will replace Microsoft Office and portals on the front-end. Forrester suggests that rich Internet applications (RIAs) may become the new norm for applications used by decision-makers and task-oriented workers, or as they’ve coined them employees in the “Information Workplace (IW)”.

Many of the articles about RIAs have focused on the consumer experience and impact, but the business impact of RIAs is also very significant. Just as the concept of a dashboards, which are used to show senior decision makers a visual status of key performance indicators, made ripples a few years ago, RIA-zing office applications and portals will also cause major waves. RIAs introduce a seamless, individualized, and visual user experience for processing large sums of data, and help make the chore of analyzing information easier.

Companies like BEA and SAP have already seen the light and are working to build new RIA-ized interfaces for their enterprise solutions. Let’s see how many others jump on board after reading this “_blank”>Forrester report.

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