Something is happening… a shift in thinking. A movement to embrace the best technologies available to provide developers with the most compelling platforms, and users with the most pleasant of experiences. A shift away from single gatekeeper systems and toward the wide open planes of freedom and choice. I’m thankful, and grateful, to be a part of this shift.
Google, Adobe, Mozilla, and other worldwide partners are working to solidify the underlying technologies we work with everyday and to empower the experiences we will interact with in the not so distant future. Google has placed full support behind the Flash and AIR runtimes for Android devices. They have made Flash an integrated component within the Chromium project. Mozilla, Google, and Adobe are working together on a new plugin architecture for browsers that will elevate de facto standards such as Flash Player to the same level as HTML and CSS within the browser; fully integrated experiences no longer separated from one another as has been the case up to the present day. Over the next decade, specifications such as HTML5 will push the native browser experience forward as well, simplifying and empowering web development and hopefully increasing compatibility across web browsers. These are the technologies that will drive the future of computing and will shape the experience of users for years to come. Even Microsoft is jumping onto the openness and cooperation bandwagon!
These technology giants, along with a host of dedicated partners are also committed to shaping a bright future on mobile devices, tablets, and other hardware that achieves total parity with the desktop experience we are all so used to. Just yesterday, Google announced through Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering, that they are throwing their full support behind Adobe AIR for Android as a premiere platform for developing Android applications across supported handsets. The tech world is preparing itself for unprecedented growth across devices in the coming year, with the Android operating system leading the charge. The world is becoming connected in ways no one could have imagined even five years ago.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with the AIR for Android team at Adobe in creating a prototype application for the University of Denver’s CourseMedia™ system called “StudyShuffler“, as mentioned in Lee Brimelow’s post “Google Reinforces Commitment to Adobe and Flash” (also on the Adobe AIR Team Blog). So far as I am aware, we are the only university which is so deeply involved in this effort. Not only are we consumers and users of this technology- we are providing input and shaping the future of device interactions across screens and systems.
This is a HUGE shift in the technology sphere. We are on the forefront, and we must continue to support and encourage such efforts as these!