Adobe is fighting to keep its place as the middleman of choice for creative professionals. Its Flash platform, which is designed to distribute interactive content to all manner of devices and operating systems, has been embattled since Apple refused to allow the technology on the iPhone. Adobe struck back this week with a series of announcements at its MAX conference in Los Angeles, hoping to show that its technology can still bring content to the widest possible audience.
Adobe announced two new ad formats for smart phones, for use in apps or in the browser. They would allow companies to build interactive or video ads that could reach a wide variety of devices. The formats are designed to make ads consistent for viewers and easy to measure. They’re also made so that people can interact with them without leaving the application they’re currently using.
Adobe has also taken steps to make sure that the new ad formats can truly be ubiquitous. The technology works with ads designed in Flash or the Web standard HTML5, says Lalit Balchandani, Adobe’s director of advertising product strategy. Support for HTML5 means that the standard can apply to ads displayed on Apple’s iOS devices, such as the iPhone and the iPad, which in turn means that ad designers don’t have to abandon Adobe products to reach Apple devices.
Don’t settle for half the story.
Get paywall-free access to technology news for the here and now.