Apollo, bridging the Web and desktop

March 20, 2007 | Matt Marshall

As widely reported, Adobe Systems released its Apollo software yesterday, which is expected to bridge the gap between the Web and desktop in all kinds of new applications — from video to word processing.

Web-based applications are hitting their limits. Apollo’s appeal is that instead of running inside a Web browser, its applications run on the desktop. A failure in a network connection, therefore, won’t interrupt users who are using Apollo apps on their desktop. However, the Apollo platform detects if there’s a network connection available, so it can also interact with the Web if it wants.

In other words, it makes the web browser optional. Even browser company Mozilla/Firefox has acknowledged this trend, and is moving to support offline applications. We’ve talked before about this online/offline mode, from Sharpcast’s vision to wrap in storage and mobility, to Parakey, a new start-up about which little is known.

The Mercury News has a good overview here.

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About the Author, Matt Marshall

Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.