What Is Adobe Air and How Can I Use It For My Business?
Chances are you have used an app built with Adobe Air technology. From organizing your Twitter stream to ordering pizza online, Adobe Air apps have been increasingly popular and have a wide array of uses. When it comes to using Adobe Air apps to interact with your customers the possibilities are endless.
Let’s start with how Adobe Air works.
The Basics
Adobe Air which stands for Adobe Integrated Runtime was released in 2008. The technology allows developers to create rich internet applications (RIA’s) that will work the same way across all operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux, Mobile).
Unlike traditional applications, Adobe Air isn’t a desktop application like Photoshop or Excel. It isn’t a web application either like Google Docs.
It’s a hybrid that allows it to operate somewhere in between desktop applications and browser based applications.
How it Works
Adobe Air Apps can be built by developers using existing technologies such as (X)HTML, CSS, Javascript, Flash and PDF. Alternatively a developer can use Flex, Adobe’s app development software.
In order for the end user to use the application they will first have to download Adobe Air onto their computers, much like they have to with Flash. Once they have downloaded it they can quickly download and install any Adobe Air app.
Because the app is not browser based it can interact with the users files and and data from their computer. It can connect with the internet for even more enhanced capabilities.
Adobe Air apps can also work when the user is not connected to the internet. It’s smart enough to know when it isn’t w reconnected and will re-sync the data at that point.
Who Is Using It
There are over 520 Adobe Air applications currently available. Here are some of the my favorites
Ebay: Easy way to shop and post listings to Ebay from your desktop.
TweetDeck: Interactive app to organize your Twitter stream and post Tweets of your own.
TimesReader2.0: The future of online newspaper reading. The closest thing to holding the real paper, updated every five minutes.
How it Applies to Your Business
Creating a custom Adobe Air app for you business is a great “out of the box” way to put your engaging content in front of your customers on a regular basis. Your custom won’t constantly be visiting your Web page. But with a desktop like application built on Adobe Air you offer a unique way to interact with your customers and keep your brand top of mind.
What Adobe Air apps have you used? Which ones are your favorite?
