Analyzing the business future of Rich Internet Applications
In reading the report, there were some things that jumped out at me. Because the market is so new, there has yet to be (from what I have seen) any kind of business analysis of the space. This report breaks down the RIA market into five categories:
- High Touch Web Interaction - Your basic, enhanced web experience. This is where Ajax shines.
- Next-Generation Portals - I do not think that the portal space has really taken of as an RIA solution, but there is a lot of potential there.
- Advanced Business Intelligence/Analytics - The data that drives businesses can benefit immensely from RIAs because of control over it the user has. The ability to manipulate charts, graphs and visualize data is one of the primary reasons to adopt RIAs.
- Application Modernization - This is where I think RIAs have the most current traction. Upgrading traditional applications and building them on the web with RIA solutions can provide a good deal of cost savings.
- Peer-to-Peer Web Applications and Mashups - A big market for RIAs. Data is always key, and being able to merge data to create something meaningful with a good user experience makes it more valuable.
Not surprisingly, the report finds that currently, Enhanced Web Apps are getting the bulk of the spend. In fact, these enhanced web applications account for 40% of total RIA spending. The next highest is the application modernization which has about 15% of spend. The rest are clocking in between 5 and 10 percent.
Currently WPF-type solutions account for only 5% of Rich Internet Applications while Flash accounts for 25%.Another aspect of the report I found interesting was the breakdown of technologies used in each of the five categories. ZapThink found that, as you would expect, Ajax accounts for 45% of the enhanced web applications. Flash clocks in at 30%. In fact, Flash never gets further than 35% technology usage which happens in the Next-Gen Portal category and the P2P and Mashup category. The WPF class of applications, predictably, has a big chunk of Application modernization at 20%. ZapThink also breaks down technology adoption over time aggregated over all of the categories. Currently WPF-type solutions account for only 5% of Rich Internet Applications while Flash accounts for 25%. The ZapThink report goes into a lot of detail about how those numbers will change over time, with Flash not gaining much at all and the WPF solutions expected to significantly increase their presence.
The full report goes into much greater detail and has a lot of valuable information about the growth of the industry creating RIAs. As I said, if you're building with these technologies, this report is going to be a great resource. The overall report shows very strong growth for all aspects of RIAs, which is good news. There are many aspects of development that stand to gain from RIA adoption, and the report agrees. I want to offer a big thanks to Ron Schmelzer, Senior Analyst at ZapThink, for letting me in on his hard work.