Intuit Unites Flex RIAs and the Cloud

Normal computer users like my father know at least three software vendors: Microsoft, Adobe, and Intuit. Microsoft is known for Windows and Office, Adobe for PDF (Reader / Acrobat), and Intuit for Quicken and QuickBooks. Yet all three of these software vendors are changing. All are moving in two directions concurrently: rich Internet applications and the cloud. These two paradigm shifts are changing how developers build software but more importantly they are changing how people like my father experience and use software.

The future of software is services in the cloud and rich Internet application on the client. Adobe has pulled back the curtain and given us a glimpse of this with new products like photoshop.com and acrobat.com. Intuit is beginning to do the same with QuickBase and Flex through the Intuit Partner Platform. For developers this means that applications can be built with Flex and live in the cloud. These applications can even integrate with QuickBooks. Intuit has built an Eclipse plugin that works with Flex Builder. This makes it extremely easy to build cloud-based Flex applications. I’ve recorded two short screencasts that will walk you through how all of this works:

Part 1: Creating a QuickBase application with Adobe AIR and Flex

Part 2: Creating a QuickBase widget for the browser and the desktop

To get started or to read more visit Intuit’s Developer website.