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FAQ: Adobe Flash Platform Services for Distribution
Answering some (fake) questions about Adobe's newly-unveiled distribution service
It's been a while, but Adobe's announcement of Flash Platform Services for Distribution (which we'll shorten to AFPSD for the duration) begs for the not-quite-famous "fake FAQ" treatment, where your humble host asks made-up questions of, well, himself in an attempt to make further sense of the official AFPSD press release. With that as the setup, let's get to those "frequently asked questions."
"Adobe Flash Platform Services for Distribution?" So what is this stuff?
Rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? In any event, these types of service announcements have the potential to seem nebulous and fuzzy, but in a briefing I had recently with Adobe's Puneet Goel (Product Marketing Manager, Flash Platform Services) and Adrian Ludwig (Group Manager, Flash Platform), it basically boils down to this: AFPSD aims to be a simple way of sharing, tracking, and monetizing applications across devices and social networks.
Yeah, you need to give me more than that. What does all that actually mean?
Alright, I'll elaborate. Adobe is trying to "tame the wild west," so to speak, by attempting to leverage the power of viral media and sharable content while addressing some of the inherent shortcomings. AFPSD is, in effect, a two-step process which will allow content publishers and advertisers to easily distribute apps (which, of course, includes games) to a variety of destinations - Web (blogs, social media sites, etc.), desktop, and mobile - and track the results.
Dude, you're not helping me, so let's break this down. What are the two steps in that two-step process you mentioned?
Step one is making it easy to share apps from a host Flash app, accomplished through a standard extension for either Flash Professional or Flash Builder which gives you a "Share This" button that connects to the various distribution outlets mentioned earlier. Add that into your Flash app, specify a few options, and you're set from that end.
The second step is a new AIR-based app known as the Distribution Manager (or DM, as I shall call it from here on out), which you can find screenshots of below. DM allows publishers and advertisers to create campaigns, manage applications, and, perhaps most importantly, get all kinds of tracking data on how distributed apps are doing once they're out in the wild. Those shortcomings of shared content I alluded to earlier are addressed in DM by a combination of: 1) analytics, such as number of unique users, application views, interaction rates, etc. and 2) the ability to filter performance across social networks and by geographic location. In other words, this is a play at getting a snapshot of what happens to your content once an application goes viral.
Figure 1: The Manage view in the Distribution Manager, built using Adobe AIR, allows advertisers and publishers to manage all their applications.
Figure 2: Advertisers can launch campaigns to promote their applications using the Distribution Manager (built on Adobe AIR)
Figure 3: Track view in the Distribution Manager, built using Adobe AIR, measures success of Web applications and campaigns
Images and captions courtesy Adobe PR
You mentioned mobile before. How does that work?
Adobe feels the mobile space has been left out of the sharing party that has gone on before now, and is trying to bring some mobile OSes in on the action. Windows Mobile, Symbian, and the iPhone OS will all be initially supported, though only as a Beta at first. For the former two, shared apps are delivered in the form of a text message with an embedded link, which allows the mobile device to download, install, and run the shared app. This brings up the point that a mobile version of the app needs to already exist, of course; AFPSD isn't magic unicorn dust, and therefore can't automatically convert a Web-based or desktop app to a mobile version.
Back up a second. You have to give me more on that last device you mentioned, because Flash isn't on the iPhone, and may never be. How do apps get shared to the iPhone?
Great question, as this allows me to make two points in a single response, and efficiency is everyone's friend. As far as the iPhone goes, you have to have an app already created, approved by Apple, and available in the App Store. AFPSD shares a direct link to that app in the App Store, and you download the app from there. This speaks to my second point here, which is that Adobe doesn't really care what kind of apps you share through AFPSD. Flash apps, Web apps, desktop apps, mobile apps - it doesn't matter. As it was put to me in the briefing, Adobe is very comfortable with including all kinds of technologies in the sharing process.
So, in other words, you can share all kinds of apps, not just Flash-based ones.
That's not a question, but yes.
So, why would anyone want to take advantage of this?
I've used the terms "publishers and advertisers" more than once so far, and for good reason. Let's look at the publisher side first. The whole idea of AFPSD is to enable app distribution, and while it may not be too hard to do that already, the post-sharing analytics aspect through the DM AIR app is fairly compelling. It's also worth mentioning that using this service is free to use, but on the advertiser front, Adobe will offer a paid mechanism that works on a cost-per-install (CPI) basis. Each successful install is counted and will be charged at a rate of $1. I'm not sure how that measures up in terms of other paid media, but at a minimum you should be able to budget accurately. Another advantage for both sets of folks is that shared apps can be changed and updated after the fact, ensuring that the end-user sees the most recent and up-to-date content.
But social networks, Web sites, and other distribution channels come and go. Who's minding the store?
Right you are! MySpace could be gone in a year, blogging could morph into flogging, or some startup called Zrbtr could become the next hot social destination. AFPSD wouldn't be worth much if it couldn't keep up with changes, which is why Adobe is partnering with the distribution network Gigya Media to keep a handle on things. From what I can tell, Gigya is doing the heavy lifting, with AFPSD serving as the front end to Gigya's back end, which handles the social network roster as well as the analytics.
That all sounds pretty specific. Will there be some sort of "Adobe Flash Platform Services for $OTHER_TECHNOLOGIES?"
It seems AFPSD is just the start. Adobe is already teasing other upcoming services, such as the Social service, which will enable Flash apps to directly connect to various social networks. It appears the idea is to create a host of services that will allow developers to have drop-in functionality for a variety of complex actions, all unified under an officially supported API. It should be a big time and effort saver, depending on what the services end up being. A "stay tuned" is definitely in order here.
Where can I find out more?
This being the Web, allow me to post some handy helpers that the kids are referring to as "links" to point to additional information:
Are we done here?
We appear to be. Thanks for the all the fake questions!
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