Adobe Creative Suite 5.5: Not just a dot release

Adobe Edge by David Wadhwani

History tells us that the software industry does not evolve linearly. Instead it evolves with sudden bursts of disruption followed by a lengthy period of normalization followed by another burst of disruption. I think it’s fair to say that we are at the tail end of one of those cyclical bursts as it relates to how content is authored, but we are only at the beginning of a profound period of normalization as it relates to how content is delivered, consumed, and monetized. This round of disruption was caused by the confluence of multiple shifts that all happened at the same time:

• The long-awaited realization of mobile computing (smartphones and tablets)
• The importance of design and interactivity in creating a great user experience
• The rise of app stores (featuring paid content and micropayments) as a balance to the more open distribution of the web and its respective ad-supported content models
• The affordability and availability of high-speed data access — broadband at home and 3G (and soon 4G) data networks for mobile devices

Under normal circumstances, any one of these changes would have represented significant opportunities for some organizations and threats to others, but the fact that they are all overlapping represents an even bigger set of challenges and opportunities with far-reaching impact.

It’s clear that several things will change in the near term:

• How content is created for devices
• How devices are used in the creation process
• How content is delivered and monetized

Put simply, everyone wants better ways to build content for these devices, and they want to start looking for new ways to monetize the content they build. read more...