Leading Companies Deliver RIAs on Adobe AIR

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced that global brands are embracing the Adobe technology platform for rich Internet applications (RIAs) to create new types of engaging experiences for their customers, partners and employees. Adobe RIA technologies, including Adobe® AIR™ and Adobe® Flex® 3 software, released today (see separate release), provide companies with a comprehensive solution for the creation and deployment of RIAs for the browser and the desktop.

“RIAs have moved beyond the stage of early adoption. They are being deployed by organizations worldwide that have recognized and embraced this revolution in Web software,” said Kevin Lynch, chief technology officer at Adobe. “The incredible momentum that we are already seeing with Adobe AIR demonstrates the real need for businesses to engage with customers in more effective ways, extending innovative RIAs as first class citizens on the desktop.”

AOL; eBay; The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc.; The New York Times Company; Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group’s Nick.com; Sharp Corporation and others today launched pioneering applications deployed on Adobe AIR. For more information and to download applications on Adobe AIR, visit www.adobe.com/go/airshowcase.

NASDAQ Market Replay leverages Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR to deliver a RIA on the desktop that enables financial professionals to replay market activity in detail at any point in time, helping investors understand how their orders interacted with the market. The complexities of equity trading are enormous — with millions of orders continuously traveling different paths to central markets. NASDAQ Market Replay lets brokers show their customers exactly what was going on in the market at the time a trade happened, and Adobe AIR allows for instant response to an extremely large data set, something not possible in a browser.

“Creating an application on Adobe AIR lets us deliver valuable data analysis at a lower cost,” said Randall Hopkins, Vice President, The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. “We are entering a world where people will be able to replay important market events — and better understand movement at any given moment in time. This not only helps financial advisors, but gives customers better insight into the market as a whole.”

The New York Times Company today launched ShifD, a new RIA that allows users to shift content between computers and mobile devices. ShifD works on — and between — the Web, mobile devices and through a downloadable AIR application, giving people an easier way to consume media on the go. Developers used Ajax technologies to build both the browser-based version of ShifD and the desktop version deployed on Adobe AIR. The New York Times Company is also developing a sophisticated blog reader on Adobe AIR.

“ShifD solves the problem of shifting data between all of a user’s Web-enabled devices,” said Michael Zimbalist, vice president, research & development operations, The New York Times Company. “We see a future for device-independent media, with convergence around the user experience and not around any particular delivery platform, which is why Adobe AIR is an excellent choice for ShifD.”

Other companies using Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR to create and deploy RIAs on the desktop include: Atlantic Records; BBC; Business Objects, an SAP company; Deutsche Bank; FedEx Corp.; Loyalty Management Group (Nectar); Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group's Neopets and Wilson Sporting Goods. These applications will span social communities, banking and retail experiences, powerful enterprise functionality, and interactive games.

Deutsche Bank is utilizing Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR to create a persistent, customer-facing RIA that alerts customers immediately of instruction status and account activity inclusive of balances. Deutsche Bank’s db-direct internet service provides an intuitive and effective online solution for corporate clients and financial institutions to handle their cash management needs. By deploying on Adobe AIR, Deutsche Bank will be able to deliver instant desktop alerts directly to the customer without the need for the client to remain logged into the internet service.

“When it comes to the financial services industry, ease of use, client service and communication are paramount,” said Mike LaCava, Director and Global Head of Internet Channels in Global Transaction Banking at Deutsche Bank. “Our challenge was to combine the right level of personal attention for our clients with an interactive solution that is both dynamic and customizable in the way it provides information back to the customer. With Adobe AIR, we can leverage the power of the desktop and the Web to immediately deliver customized desktop notifications that will keep our clients well-informed and empowered while they carry out their daily activities.”

To read what other companies are saying about the Adobe technology platform for RIAs,
visit www.adobe.com/go/riacustomers

Adobe Technology Platform for RIAs Propels Innovation on the Web, Adobe AIR and Adobe Flex 3 Now Available

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the availability of Adobe® AIR™ and Adobe® Flex® 3 software, furthering the Adobe technology platform for rich Internet applications (RIAs). Developers and designers use Adobe RIA technologies to rapidly create and deploy rich, branded content and applications. The release of Adobe AIR signals the next wave of Adobe RIA innovation by bridging the real-time, dynamic capabilities of the Web with the computing power and data capabilities of the desktop. Businesses that leverage the Web as a platform are now using the latest Adobe RIA technologies to build and deploy more engaging applications with the widest reach across browsers, desktops and operating systems.

“For 25 years, Adobe has delivered technology innovation for our customers, beginning with desktop publishing and extending to multimedia and the Web,” said Kevin Lynch, chief technology officer at Adobe. “Now, we continue to advance the future of digital experiences by enabling our customers to create highly interactive, expressive applications. This is an exciting time for Adobe, for innovation in software, and for designers and developers who are driving the Web forward.”

Industry Leaders Embrace Adobe RIA Technologies
Leading companies across industries such as entertainment, finance, media, retail and social networking are embracing Adobe RIA technologies. Deutsche Bank, The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc., and The New York Times Company, among others, use the Adobe technology platform for RIAs to help ensure customer interactions are engaging and effective. (See separate press release issued today.)

“Adobe has been focused on improving the Web experience and delivering the underlying technologies to produce more interactive and expressive Web sites and applications, and the Adobe technology platform for RIAs hits right at a key need companies have today,” said Al Hilwa, Program Director at IDC. “The ROI of RIAs is real. A more engaging product visualization experience in eCommerce applications for example, helps customers understand what they are buying, which leads to less online abandonment and increased average order size through cross-sell and up-sell visualization.”

Adobe is also delivering new applications built with Adobe Flex and deployed on Adobe AIR, such as Adobe Media Player, now in beta release, which is a fusion of TV and the Internet that allows users to watch their favorite shows anytime and anywhere, as well as Buzzword, an elegant online word processor that has built-in collaboration capabilities.

Adobe Technology Platform for RIAs
Adobe AIR, Adobe Flex and Adobe Flash® Player software are the foundation of the Adobe technology platform for RIAs. Adobe RIA technologies include tools, frameworks, servers, services, and runtimes that work together seamlessly, enabling the creation of engaging experiences with the greatest reach. There are a variety of learning resources at the Adobe Developer Connection (developer.adobe.com ) to help developers immediately start building RIAs for the browser and the desktop.

Adobe AIR enables developers to create RIAs on the desktop using the skills and Web technologies — such as HTML, Ajax, PDF, Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex — they already employ. Applications deployed on Adobe AIR have the advantages of browser-based RIAs, such as speed of development, ease of use, and access from virtually anywhere. Yet they also have the benefits of desktop applications, such as the ability to read/write local files, work with other applications on a user’s computer and maintain local data storage on the desktop.

Flex is a free, open source framework for building highly interactive, expressive RIAs. Adobe Flex Builder™ 3, an Eclipse™ based development tool, accelerates Flex application development and includes new capabilities for deploying RIAs on Adobe AIR. Adobe Flex Builder 3 integrates with Adobe Creative Suite® 3 software making it easy for designers and developers to work together more efficiently. Powerful new testing tools, including memory and performance profilers and integrated support for automated functional testing, speed up development and lead to higher performing RIAs.

Adobe Flash Player, which reaches over 98 percent of Internet-enabled PCs and hundreds of millions of mobile and set-top devices, delivers unparalleled creative options, highly engaging user experiences, stunning audio/video playback, and virtually universal reach.

Major portions of Adobe AIR, such as the WebKit HTML engine, Tamarin ActionScript™ Virtual Machine, and SQLite local database functionality, are open source. Adobe is committed to contributing to the open source community on multiple fronts, including the release of the free open source Flex framework and open source BlazeDS for high-speed data connectivity, as well as active membership in the SQLite Consortium. Visit opensource.adobe.com for more information.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe AIR and the Adobe AIR SDK are available immediately as free downloads in English and offered for both Windows® and Macintosh operating systems. Upcoming versions are expected to be available for Linux and other languages. For more information, please visit www.adobe.com/go/air

The Adobe Flex 3 product line is available now in English and Japanese, and offered for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. The open source Flex 3 SDK is available free of charge and a beta version of Adobe Flex Builder 3 for Linux is freely available on Adobe Labs (labs.adobe.com). Adobe Flex Builder 3 is available as a standalone product or Eclipse plug-in, with the Standard edition priced at US$249 and the Professional edition at US$699. For more information about system requirements and supported platforms, please visit www.adobe.com/go/flex *

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit http://www.adobe.com/



* Price does not include applicable sales tax, or shipping and handling fees. Reseller prices may vary. © 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, ActionScript, Adobe AIR, Creative Suite, Flex, and Flex Builder are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Macintosh is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Windows is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Adobe to Acquire Virtual Ubiquity

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Virtual Ubiquity and its ground-breaking online word processor, Buzzword. The acquisition furthers Adobe's commitment to foster a vibrant ecosystem for rich Internet application (RIA) development that delivers breakthrough experiences built on Adobe AIR. Separately, Adobe added a new file sharing service to its current online document services. Codenamed “Share,” the beta service will make it easier than ever for people to share, publish and organize documents online.

“For over a decade, Adobe® Acrobat® software and PDF have been the standard way people share and collaborate on high value documents across platforms, with perfect fidelity. Buzzword will build on that leadership and enable fundamental improvements in how people collaborate on documents,” said David Mendels, senior vice president, Business Productivity Business Unit at Adobe. “At the same time, it is an exciting showcase of the power of Adobe’s RIA technology that raises the bar for the quality of experience people should expect in their applications.”

Buzzword, an elegant online word processor, enables individuals to work together to create high quality, page perfect documents. Because it was built with Adobe Flex™ software and runs in the Adobe Flash™ Player, Buzzword enables greater document quality, outstanding typography, page layout controls, and robust support for integrated graphics, regardless of the browser or device. The application also will run on Adobe® AIR™, offering users a hybrid online/offline experience and the ability to work with both hosted and local documents. The powerful collaboration capabilities in Buzzword enable multiple authors to edit and comment on documents from anywhere, at anytime, while document creators can set permissions that virtually eliminate version control chaos. For more information on the acquisition and access to Buzzword beta software, please visit http://www.adobe.com/go/buzzwordfaq.

The founders of Virtual Ubiquity will be joining Adobe, bringing with them a wealth of knowledge and experience in online document collaboration. With extensive background in the development of Lotus Notes and eRoom, the Virtual Ubiquity team developed a rich, collaborative authoring environment for the next generation of work. “We were inspired by the way today’s youth spend their lives working and playing together online, and how this is influencing the way we all think about collaboration,” said Rick Treitman, CEO of Virtual Ubiquity. “This inspiration resulted in an online word processor for the ‘Facebook generation’ that focuses on working together online, without sacrificing quality.”

Increasingly, the Web is becoming the platform for the “future of work,” where people come together to share each other’s work anytime, anywhere. As a leader in RIA development, Adobe is revolutionizing the way people come together to engage with ideas, information and each other. This announcement marks a milestone for Adobe as it expands its leadership in the emerging domain of online document collaboration.

Adobe also made available today a free online document sharing service, codenamed “Share.” Users simply select the documents they want to share, send a message to recipients, and set whether the files will be publicly accessible or restricted. Built with Adobe Flex technology, the rich interface provides a smooth experience, integrating simple workflows to upload and share documents with high quality online previews to speed up finding the right document. Additionally, the beta will include a set of REST APIs to let developers create mash-ups with their applications, including storing and accessing files, as well as creating thumbnails and Flash-based previews of documents. People can learn more about the service and sign-up for access at http://www.adobe.com/go/labs_share .

Virtual Ubiquity is based in Waltham, Massachusetts. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close by the end of November 2007. The addition of Virtual Ubiquity is not expected to have a material impact to Adobe revenue and earnings in fiscal year 2007. Terms were not disclosed.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com