Apple has debuted a new utility to facilitate the easy design of “rich media ads” for iOS apps.
As AppleInsider’s Daniel Eran Dilger points out, iAd Producer marks yet another “direct blow” agains Adobe Flash and its related dev tools – which are currently viewed as the standard by “many” web and mobile ad designers.
So, how does iAd Producer work?
Well, the HTML5-based utility graphically lays out the structure and flow of iAd elements within an iOS advertisement in a “powerful visual editing canvas.”
iAd Producer also offers devs access to advanced JavaScript editing, along with more than a dozen default templates for creating page views, including Cover Flow, carousel image galleries and geographic maps.
Meanwhile, a variety of interface components allow developers to seamlessly add media playback controls, standard buttons, sliders/switches, progress indicators and flip views without needing to write any code.
In addition, devs can easily add animated transitions and effects to artwork and pages, such as graphics, videos and SVG fonts.
When completed, the content is neatly saved as “self-contained” HTML5 website that can subsequently be inserted into existing iOS apps to create an “interactive” advertising experience.
iAd Producer is likely to be quickly adopted by mainstream iOS developers and could help Apple in its quest to position HTML5 as a viable alternative to Adobe Flash – which Steve Jobs believes is utterly unsuitable for a more civilized mobile age.
It should be noted that a number of industry heavyweights, including Google’s YouTube, Vimeo, Brightcove and Digital Playground, have all quickly moved to support the next-gen standard. [[Apple]]
