Adobe announced the release of its latest version of its dominant today Acrobat document format (Acrobat 9). PDF files in standard platform-agnostic view and print document how much Flash has a dominant position in Web graphics and videos. What’s hot with Acrobat 9?
The first thing is the merging of Adobe’s dominant formats to a certain degree, with the possibility to integrate Flash content in PDF files. On the surface, the value of this type of dynamic content seems somewhat curious given the fact that the value of PDF files is that the content seen on the screen is more or less guaranteed, the same content to see if printed. The advantage of flash embedded in PDF files, with a view to demanding PowerPoint as a form of slide show presentation program in the future.

However, the more important is the announcement of the beta-launch Acrobat.com, which features a Flash-based word processor called lips. I side with a quick run-through this morning, and the WYSIWYG editor is pretty much what you’d expect from a graphical word processing, while the inclusion of file-sharing features a la Google Docs. The ability to export to PDF format (a limited number per month are free) is buzzword, but the application seems to be very much work in progress – a demonstration of the desire user interface is possible that by Flash.

Acrobat.com is a sign of the impending transition to Web applications away from traditional PC-based applications. The advantages of Web-based applications are cooperative capabilities and storage in the cloud, which allow users to access the same content in a number of different platforms (PC, TV, phone, etc.). The fact that Adobe is to open the programming interface to descriptor will also allow users to access their documents with mash-up applications – new combinations of traditional applications with other applications (such as mapping, with the remark), enabling application writers to create unexpected uses for these applications. And finally, Acrobat.com will soon be enabled with Adobe AIR, will these Web applications with the ability to operate, if not connected to the Internet. Together with Google gear, the great turning point of Web applications compared to conventional PC applications should take place once web applications can work, even in areas with no or dodgy connectivity. For consumers and enterprise users, the application fails, if the Internet connection is simply not an acceptable risk.

In summary, Adobe’s new product release is a sign that the company is the roadmap is committed to this new paradigm, Web application paradigm – as this issue plays, Google and Adobe are applied, an increasing amount of pressure on Microsoft, and I m not so sure that the Redmond giant in a position to effectively change with the times – a Monopolist’s dilemma, if you will.