Adobe 2008 Annual Report Download - page 19

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In addition to key mobile OEM relationships we have established, we provide Flash Lite for Qualcomm BREW on the
Verizon network. This relationship serves to broaden the Flash Lite ecosystem in the United States, driven by the ability for
Verizon subscribers to view Flash based content on their BREW enabled handsets.
During the year, we also achieved strong unit adoption of our Flash Lite client on consumer electronics devices.
Customers have licensed our Flash Lite for distribution on devices such as the Nintendo Wii and the Sony PlayStation
Portable and PlayStation devices.
As part of our strategy to drive broad adoption of the Adobe Flash Platform on non-PC devices, in May of 2008 we
announced the Open Screen Project. Together with other industry leaders such as ARM, BBC, Cisco, Intel, Comcast, Nokia,
Marvell, Motorola, MTV Networks, NBC Universal, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Sony Ericsson and Verizon, we intend to
drive the industry towards a consistent, rich Internet experience that enables developers and designers to seamlessly publish
content and applications across connected devices. To achieve this goal, the Open Screen Project will utilize Adobe’ s Flash
Platform technologies such as Adobe Flash and Adobe AIR as a foundation for improved Web browsing and the delivery of
RIAs on mobile handset and consumer electronic devices.
Another major focus of our Platform team is to broaden the reach and viability of the Adobe Flash Platform through the
delivery of our new cross-platform client named Adobe AIR. Based on Flash, PDF and HTML technologies, Adobe AIR
enables the creation and delivery of Web-enabled desktop applications that run outside of a Web browser. Adobe AIR based
applications extend today’ s Web browser-based applications to have the power and utility of desktop applications with
capabilities such as access to the local file system, alerts and notifications, and the ability to work offline and then
synchronize data when the application has online access again. Developers of Adobe AIR applications are able to create
persistent, branded desktop experiences which can be developed using standard Web technologies such as HTML, Ajax,
Flash and PDF, as well as common audio and video formats.
Adoption of Adobe AIR has been substantial in its first six months of availability in fiscal 2008. As of January 2009,
there were more than 100 million AIR installations along with more than one million downloads of the AIR SDK developer
tools used to create these applications. Companies such as eBay, DirecTV, The NASDAQ Stock Market, FOX News,
Salesforce.com, The New York Times, AOL, Atlantic Records and the BBC have already deployed commercial applications
based on Adobe AIR.
Our Platform team also focuses on the development and delivery of our developer solutions such as Flex Builder and
ColdFusion. These solutions ensure reliable, secure and rich application experiences across the broadest range of browsers,
operating systems and devices.
Our Flex Builder integrated development environment (“IDE”) is used by developers to create and deploy rich browser
and Adobe AIR based applications. With the robust IDE of Flex Builder, as well as comprehensive charting tools and
components, we believe it is the most efficient means for developers to create RIAs that deploy seamlessly across all
browsers and operating systems. With the release of Adobe AIR version 1 in early 2008, our Flex Builder revenue grew
during the year as more developers utilized it to create Adobe Flash and Adobe AIR based applications.
Our ColdFusion product line provides fast and easy ways to build and deploy powerful Internet applications. Developers
can extend or integrate ColdFusion with Java or .NET applications, connect to enterprise data and applications, create and
interact via Web services, or interface with SMS on mobile devices or instant messaging clients. ColdFusion can also be used
for business reporting, rich-forms generation, printable document generation, full-text search and graphing and charting—
enabling customers to more fully engage their constituents with better Web experiences. In fiscal 2008, our ColdFusion
business continued to perform well through revenue generated from its existing customer base that benefits from a large and
active developer community.
Platform Strategy
In fiscal 2009, we intend to innovate with and broadly market the Adobe Flash Platform to further the development of
products and solutions that improve how businesses engage with their customers and employees. As part of this strategy, we
intend to release new versions of our client technologies, including enhanced versions that broaden our reach on more mobile
devices ranging from high-end smart phones to lower-end feature phones. We also intend to release new versions of our
Adobe AIR client to broaden its capabilities and we intend to release new versions of Adobe Flex and Adobe Flex Builder to