The New Version of Trillian is a Flash Application with Apollo-like Functionality
I feel like a giddy school boy right now after reading about Astra, Trillian's new client over on Webware and the Trillian Blog. The new client is built on Flash, and there is a web client …
Context & Ripple Effects
Cerulean Studios has announced Astra, the next version of its Trillian multi-protocol instant messaging client, built on Flash rather than a native toolkit, with both a downloadable desktop build and a browser-based client — the pickup by Webware and the company's own blog shows the story landing squarely in the RIA conversation. It follows a January 2007 Apollo presentation at Mashup University at MIT that demoed live Flex application creation, which is exactly the desktop-plus-web delivery model 'Apollo-like' refers to here.
The move also lands against AOL's push to modernize its flagship network client, which had drawn attention when AIM received a major makeover in November 2006. A third-party client rebuilding itself on a web runtime puts pressure back on the networks whose official desktop clients set the default experience.
First-order effects
- Trillian users get one client that runs identically as an installed app or in the browser, removing the install step for new users across the multiple IM networks it aggregates.
- AIM's November 2006 major makeover now competes for mindshare with a rival that can ship the same experience through a URL instead of a download.
Second-order effects
- IM networks lose further control of the client experience: if Flash delivers a credible desktop substitute, AOL and other protocol owners see their own client redesigns matter less to heavy multi-network users.
- Adobe's Flash runtime gains a marquee consumer showcase for desktop-class applications outside the browser, strengthening its position in the nascent rich-internet-application race that Apollo kicked off at MIT in January.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — desktop apps rebuilt on a plugin runtime with a web twin — the download-versus-URL distinction starts dissolving for mainstream consumer software, and platform owners like Adobe compete to be the runtime that mediates it.
- Multi-protocol aggregators shift from being thin wrappers over proprietary protocols to being independent platforms in their own right, changing how IM networks think about openness and client lock-in.
The trend: Consumer desktop software is beginning to rebuild on web runtimes like Flash, with Apollo-style hybrid delivery turning installed applications into things you can also just open in a browser.