Apollo. What is it good for? Absolutely…

Nothing? Everything? Well its obviously neither of those, which leaves us with somewhere in between, right? But where? Nearly all the information that’s been filtering through is about Apollo’s capabilities - hybrid desktop-web applications, occasionally connected software, data syncing capabilities, Flash/Flex/html/PDF/AJAX support, etc. Truly amazing stuff and if that’s the info you’re after, Adobe labs is the place to start. Mike Chamber’s blog is also a great source for keeping up with the latest Apollo developments.

I’ll be honest. I haven’t been able to get enough of it. “It can do what?”. “How cool is that gonna be!”. “Be gone with Web2.0. Bring on Desktop2.0!” And I’m obviously not the only one. The web development media and blog world has been lapping it up.

My opinions on the impact Apollo’s release is going to haven’t changed. Suffice to say, I’m bloody excited about it all. However, last week saw me go through a bit of a perspective shift; from looking at Apollo through the eyes of an RIA developer to looking at Apollo through the eyes of a marketer. Replacing all my ‘what else can it do?’, ‘how are they implementing that?’ and ‘when, when, WHEN?’ questions came a couple of new ones. What problems, that the clients I develop for have now, is Apollo going to provide solutions to? What type of clients are going to invest in developing and maintaining Apollo applications? What business opportunities is it going to open up or redefine? Are the end users actually going to be keen to use Apollo applications? In short, I started thinking seriously about what Apollo is actually going to be good for.

New information on Apollo seems pretty scarce in the last couple of weeks which tends to lend weight to the rumor sneaking around that the alpha release will be in March. So as we sit in the lull before the release storm, I thought I’d take as stab at how the market is going to react to Apollo.

I started with what’s already available; four sample applications. Let me know if I’ve missed any.

1) Ebay’s ‘San Dimas’ .
2) SAP’s ‘Muse Project’.
3) Christian Cantrell’s ‘validation applications’.
4) Mike Chamber’s personal project (screenshots)

After I’d taken another look at those four and a quick review of the available Apollo information, I sat down, opened up a new mind-map (FreeMind), and vented. I started off with a pretty basic SWOT analysis, with a branch each for Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats and Opportunities. I’m not going to go into details on everything that ended up on that mind-map, but in an attempt to give a balanced view I’d like to highlight a couple of things from each.

Strengths

The ones you probably already know:

- OS ubiquity : already well publicized.
- content ubiquity : well, as far as RIA content goes anyways. Flash, Flex, PDF, HTML, AJAX is a pretty powerful little set to have in your toy box.
- strong developer base : lots and lots of people are already developing with the aforementioned technologies. And if a ‘pocket-reference’ is all we need to get started with Apollo, I don’t think the learning curve is going to provide too many barriers for those developers to start pumping out Apollo apps.

And my pick:

- ability to create occasionally connected desktop applications : This is where its at. Let me break it down further to explain why.

1) Performance boost. We can already make some way cool stuff with Flash and Flex. Way cooler than you’ll see on any commercial site or RIA. The capabilities of the technologies, IMHO, go far beyond what is practical to develop RIA with currently. As a commercial developer, I can’t afford to just make something that looks great in a development environment. I have to make sure that the application looks good and runs smoothly on ALL of the client’s site user’s computers. That’s a pretty big range of specs, browsers and connection speeds to deal with. So, you end up designing and developing conservatively against the possibilities.
Not for much longer. With Apollo applications, we’ll have desktop performance at our fingertips. Hold on to your hats boys and girls. I think we’re going to see a lot of super sexy interfaces in the near future. Vista may have the ‘Wow!’, but Apollo willdefinitely bring on the ‘ Ohhhh yeaaahhh, baby!!!’
2) Remote/Local environments. Local performance and functionality combined with local resource access and storage. Local performance and functionality combined with remote resource access and storage. Funky combinations of both. Potential here for a wee bit more than ‘uploading some holiday snaps to your Flickr account’, me thinks. I’ll come back to this point when we get to the bit about ‘opportunities’.

3) Online/Offline functionality with data syncing. This is a key strength for Apollo. Again I’d like to come back to this in the ‘opportunities’ bit, but for now, let me just say, ‘Web2.0, roll over already…’
4) Apollo is NOT a browser. This didn’t stand out to me much at first, but that’s because I was thinking like a developer. Then, when I took a couple of steps back to try to take in the big picture, I realized what a heavy-weight this point really is. Bear with me for a moment. Why do clients fork out so much to develop commercial RIA? In the majority of cases, I’d propose that, in one way or another, its to support one or more of their marketing objectives. Increase brand awareness, improve customer service, try to snaggle a bit of brand loyalty, etc. So assuming that these goals are the underlying objectives of the RIA we’re designing and developing, lets take a look at where they are being distributed. On the Internet, right? That’s why there’s an ‘I’ in RIA, right? OK, now hands up if you’ve ever studied marketing and can remember anything about the evils of ‘clutter‘. Bad stuff, right? Try this; open up you’re favourite search engine and do a search for the business you work for, BUT you’re not allowed to use your business’ name in the search. Instead, try something that describes one of the products or services you sell. … How many results came up? Did your business appear on the first page? Did you know you had that much competition? Like I said, clutter is an evil piece of work.
Now, lets imagine for a second that the user didn’t have to ’search’ for your site/RIA. Let’s imagine all that clutter just disappeared. Let’s go as far as to imagine that when a user was thinking about using your client’s service or purchasing something from them, that the only site available to them on their browser was your client’s. You know, the one with the groovy RIA you helped build on it. It’d kind of be like having an RIA as a desktop application… Do I need to spell it out any further? Know any marketers who’d be keen on a crazy idea like that one?

Weaknesses and Threats

I’m sure there’s more, but here’s my first take.

- Downloadable software has a pretty dodgy reputation. Especially if its free. I really have no idea about any of the security risks involved with Apollo applications yet, but I’m sure that the average user out there doesn’t either. I’m guessing there will be a bit of resistance to Apollo applications as a result of this to begin with. For all the benefits, anything that has access to both local files and the Internet will have an image problem to overcome with the majority of the market. And don’t think for a second that this perceived/real security threat wont be exploited by the competition .
- Consumer behaviour. We as consumer/users are used to browsing. We like having all that information, all those choices ( did someone say clutter? ) available to us. I feel there will be some resistance to being cut off from that.
- Consumer education. OK, if its not really a web site and its not really software, then what the blazes is it? And further more, why would I want to use it if I already have software and the Internet? Innovators and Early Adopters are a comparatively small market. For the majority, it will take some time and education before they are convinced.
- I like my desktop wallpaper. I chose it ‘cos I like to look at it. I certainly don’t want a whole heap of little application icons covering up all the good bits. Clutter is not a good thing on my desktop either. But don’t worry, I’m sure it wont be long before someone develops a groovy little Apollo application that acts as a toolbar for all your other Apollo applications. You could call it something like, ‘Moonscape’, ‘Moonraker’ or ‘LRV‘. Any takers?

Opportunities

This was the fun bit. This main branch really bulked up my mind-map. After the initial idea-venting was over and I had played around and re-sorted the branches, I eventually came up with the following top level categories:

a) Applications for business users.
b) Applications for users as end-consumers.
c) Applications for ‘medium to long consumer process self-management’.
d) Applications for group member interaction.
e) Applications for organizing and sharing personal information/resources.

That may look like a pretty big slice of the pie, and taken at that level, I guess it is. However, I’m not trying to say that Apollo applications will provide all the solutions to all business users or all end-consumers. In fact, I think Apollo applications are only really suitable for a small percentage of RIA built for each of those categorizations. I’d like to explain them one by one to give you a better idea why.

Applications for business users

This category basically broke down into two sub-categories on my mind map.

1) Enterprise applications :

Way back when, this was my first guess for Apollo. In a post I wrote last July, ‘Flex as a front-end for process management‘ I took a guess at the potential for a Flex, Apollo and LiveCycle combination to provide some really rich process management tools. BPM is a pet topic of study for me and although I strongly believe in the potential and benefits of BPM, I really can’t see it reaching that full potential until the interface between the process and the people involved in the process is dramatically improved. I’m sure that all the experience RIA designers and developers have, coupled with the richness of Flash and Flex is going to go a long way toward that improvement. The only reason why it wouldn’t is lack of vision. SAP obviously had a vision with its Muse project :).

2) Desktop2.0 applications (known as Web2.0 applications in a former life):

Let me first point you at these two articles about Google Apps Premier Edition and Google Docs (which by the way I’m using to draft this post). By the looks of it, Google Apps Premier Edition is going to be a serious contender and a champion for the Web2.0 movement. Go, Google, Go! But what’s the main complaint you hear about Web2.0 applications like Google Docs? ‘Yeah, ya know, its really great and all, but what happens when I lose my connection? No access to any of my stuff, man! I’ll use it for sure, but not for anything important that I’ve got to have guaranteed access to.’ Yep, online-offline sure would be cool, wouldn’t it? Anyone over at Google wanna let me wrap ‘Google Apps Premier Edition’ in an Apollo application and take a wee, wee percentage of commission on the sales? Anyone? Pleeeeaaassee…

Applications for users as end-consumers

By ‘end-consumers’ I basically mean buyers. San Dimas from Ebay falls under this category. Although I’m sure there will be a few very high profile examples come out of this category, I think good use of Apollo here will be limited to quite a small niche. But a niche it should dominate.

The way I see it is that there’s really not any benefit to creating an Apollo application unless it is used regularly over a medium to long term. I mean, there’s no point going to the bother of downloading and installing something on your desktop if you’re only going to use it once or twice, right? So the only types of end-consumer RIA/sites that will create any value for their users are those used repeatedly and regularly. Ebay fits this mould nicely. Setting up and monitoring auctioned items involves repeated visits for the term of the auction. It may not seem like much to open up your browser, browse to the site and login to your account ( we’re all very well trained at that process ), but its certainly a lot more effort than double clicking an icon on your desktop and being right to go. The less barriers to use, the higher the chance of repeat use and maybe, if your really on top of things, a bit of brand loyalty.

Regular users of online shopping carts of all kinds will also benefit from Apollo implementations, but only if they are satisfied not to shop around. I cant see many people wanting to open up half a dozen applications just to compare prices on the book they’re after. Again, I’m sure someone will come along with a handy little Apollo application that allows its users to compare prices and buy from within a selected group of popular suppliers. But, I’m not just talking about your Amazons when I say shopping carts. Businesses serving SOHO clients have a great opportunity to provide ‘inventory management and purchase systems’ connected to their catalogues. Being able to quickly and easily complete repeat purchases are very likely to be well received.

Generally speaking, the performance boost from having the catalogue data (or subsections of a catalogue’s data) available locally as opposed to constantly downloading all the items on every new page will result in far better experiences for the user. Think of all the effort that goes into designing and improving the online shopping process experience nowdays. Streamlining and optimizing the flow from intent to buy through to checkout in order to decrease the number of drop outs is pretty big business. I’m sure Apollo applications will be all over their ‘online only’ competitors when it comes to the shopping experience offered to users and percentages of purchases completed.

Frequent travellers are also set to benefit from Apollo. If you’ve ever studied BPM, then you’re sure to have come across the example of creating a travel itinerary. The three separate, parallel sub-processes of booking a flight, booking accommodation and booking a hire car. You know the one. Anyway, are there any businessmen out there who’d like to be able to complete that process all in one place from their own desktops. Throw in some frequent flier point management functionality, Yahoo/Google maps, real time weather information and a really well thought out calendar and I reckon you might just come up with something worth taking the effort to download and install on your desktop. Travel agencies better be on their toes. I’m willing to bet a beer that they’ll be seeing and hearing a lot less from frequent travellers in the next few years…

Applications for ‘medium to long consumer process self-management’

Although this category is very similar to the previous one, I decided to separate it based on the one criteria. The applications in this category will be designed to be uninstalled after the process has been completed. That is, these applications will provide solutions to one time (non repeat) medium to long term processes. The example that got me thinking about this category was wrapping up everything ( or a lot at anyways ) involved in buying a house into a desktop application. Personally, I’d be keen on something that would allow me to:
- Keep an eye on the housing market, browsing houses currently available that match my purchase criteria. Of course this would have to be hooked up to Yahoo or Google maps so I could I check out the neighbourhood.
- Manage and monitor our budget and savings. Perhaps a couple of tool modules providing saving simulations tied to spreadsheet data representing our own spending behaviour. If I could just drag that Excel file we’ve been maintaining for the last couple of years into something that would allow me to view and analyze the data in a more useful format. Perhaps even project it forward over the next 30 years against some loan repayment data available from my friendly bank. Then again, perhaps I really don’t want to know .
- I guess the next thing I’d need is the loan application material.
- And wrap it up with some online banking functionality tied to my loan repayment account.
And when its all done, I simply uninstall. Game over. OK, sure this is a pretty extreme and impractical example. I highly doubt I’ll be using a desktop by the time I finish repaying my house loan, but the first three steps probably take somewhere between a 3-18 months. Something to manage that part of the process would probably find a market as a complimentary service for a bank or real estate corporation.

Applications for group member interaction

I’d be surprised if distance eduction and e-learning providers fail to take advantage of Apollo. Providing all the course material ( updatable throughout the course, of course ) combined with real time communication functionality to connect with faculty members and other students and the ability to easily submit files from your own computer might lead to some pretty effective learning environments. Adobe, any plans to release some of the ‘Training From The Source’ series as Apollo modules. I’d sure be keen .

Of course, classes wont be the only groups to benefit from Apollo. Its almost perfect for project teams. Once things get rolling, I have a hunch that we’ll start to see some project management applications become available. Probably not something you’d want to have to put together from scratch every time you start a new project, though.

And from a marketing standpoint, having an account is cool, but having your own custom membership application … that’s even cooler. Well, I’m sure some people will think so. If building membership is a part of your marketing strategy, providing ‘membership service applications’ might be a new angle to take a look at.

Applications for organizing and sharing personal information/resources

Basically, I feel this category will be populated by those current Web2.0 players that take good advantage of what Apollo offers over online-only RIA. At least initially, I’m sure we’ll see a lot of mapping based and image sharing applications getting around. That’s cool. It’ll be great to see what the leading edge comes up with.
So there you have it. Sure, there was a lot of other bits and pieces on that mind map, but I think that pretty much covers what I wanted to communicate. Just to summarize, I see the main solutions Apollo has to offer as:

- an excellent choice for the process management/monitoring tools, be that process a buying something online or monitoring an enterprise process.
- the opportunity for Web2.0 applications and suites to overcome what has probably been their greatest disadvantage against their desktop-only competitors.
- a chance to avoid clutter.
- a better opportunity to lock users in to using only your application. Well, … its nice to dream.

As far as impact and reach go, I’m fairly convinced that ‘applications for business users’ (both enterprise applications and those like Google Docs) will be where Apollo roars the loudest. However, I’m really looking forward to keeping an eye on the ebb and flow between pure online RIA and pure offline/desktop applications as organizations try to find the best balance for the challenges they face. One thing’s for sure, the release of Apollo will see a lot of new doors open and probably just about as many start to close.

PS. All this came out of just one of my mind-maps. I’d love to hear what everyone else is seeing in their crystal balls…

Tags: Apollo