Adobe, the maker of the Creative Suite of applications, such as Photoshop, Acrobat, and Flash, is starting out the week with a whole array of new CS 5.5 announcements, with many new or updated features that deal directly with Android.
These announcements are great news for:
- developers interested in building Android tablet applications that can interact directly with Photoshop using the new Photoshop Touch SDK (download it here). Example applications using the SDK were introduced by Adobe, though only for iOS for starters.
- multi-platform developers looking to build, test, and deploy Flash and Air apps for multiple platforms, such as Blackberry Tablet OS, iOS, and, of course, Android, with the new Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5. Curiously, the new Flex is able to deploy applications straight to the Amazon Appstore.
- PHP developers looking to publish cross-platform apps on the web in the PHP environment in addition to the ecosystems listed above, all while working in a single IDE that combines Flash Builder and Zend Studio that Adobe is calling Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP.
As a developer who has never developed Air or Flash apps, I must be honest - I've had some trouble understanding how exactly the new offerings, and specifically the Flash Builder, were different from anything Adobe already has to offer. I can't say Adobe's PRs made it especially easy to compare and contrast, which should be of the utmost importance to a company that is trying to sell developers on products that cost hundreds of dollars ("estimated street price for Adobe Photoshop CS5 is $699 and $999 for Photoshop CS5 Extended").
Developers, are you excited about this? Surely the prospect of developing for multiple ecosystems using a single codebase is very attractive, but how really different are the new offerings that Adobe is pushing today with CS 5.5? Feel free to discuss in the space below.