MAX Wrap-Up - The Big Picture

Now that I am back at work (groan), I thought it worthwhile to take a look back at MAX and examine some overall impressions of Adobe's direction. First, let me say that I am pleased both with the general direction of Adobe as I see it, as well as ColdFusion's place within that, which seems secure. I actually spent much of the conference focused on products other than ColdFusion, specifically Flex and AIR. This is one of the great things about MAX is that you can get a great overall sense of Adobe products and can attend sessions covering a variety of them. So, without further adieu, here's my impressions of the company's direction - none of which I think were explicitly stated, so these are simply my opinion.AIR - The Center of the Adobe Universe
It was apparent to me that the AIR Runtime is Adobe's top priority at the moment, with an expected final 1.0 release probably in early 2008. From ColdFusion to Photoshop Express to Buzzword and Scene 7, practically every product or service within the Adobe universe seemed to have at least one initiative involving AIR, including ColdFusion. In fact, the philosophy behind AIR, that the future lies in the merger, or blending, of the online space with the desktop space, appeared to be the central theme of conference. Despite my initial skepticism during the Apollo days, I am very excited by this direction.

A New Focus on Services
From the recently purchased Buzzword, to Scene7's amazing image server, to Photoshop Express and the recently released Share (beta), Adobe is moving into hosted services in a big way. Much of the excitement in the keynote's surrounded these products, which goes to show that this move isn't stifling innovation or limiting functionality. This allows companies to expand service and functionality internally without needing to expand their hardware or software infrastructure, and the necessary human resources for managing that infrastructure. I think it is a smart move and will actually drive the innovation and growth at Adobe as the initiatives mature.

An Improved Direction for Product UIs
This was perhaps the least obvious because it seemed to be the most unspoken, but I noticed some commonality in the UIs on the new products offerings, seemingly inspired by the rich UI capabilities of Flex. In products like Thermo and Photoshop Express, the move seemed to be away from the standard Windows-style drop-down menus and toolbar overload to a more intuitive and contextual nevigation. The look and feel of some of the new products seemed to be cleaned up too. This, in my opinion, would offer a nice change from the UI's of past Adobe (and Macromedia) products that blotted out the screen with a thousand toolbars. So hopefully this was an actual focus within the company and not a false impression on my part.

Conclusion
I definitely think I took some new understanding and inspiration away from my attendance at MAX. I think that unless you spend your whole day focused on ColdFusion (or perhaps especially then), it is essential to get a sense of how your work fits within the overall vision of the companies products. This allows you to find "synergies" (to use a business person term I generally hate) and perhaps some inspiration to innovate out-of-the-box that the day-to-day slog of work may not provide the opportunity for. I know I, for one, came home with some really cool ideas for expanding my horizons further in Flex and AIR, and, yes, ColdFusion.