Apollo ... the end of Zinc-type Apps?

Anyone who has programmed in Flash for longer than a couple of months soon realized that they would love to add functionality and power to their Flash applications. Flash is meant for the web, yet its ease of use and huge outreach to users makes a very appealing case for using Flash for more than your standard web applications. Programmers that have married themselves to Actionscript seek to utilize Flash's power on desktop applications or on other devices and for a wide variety of purposes. People have constantly asked me "Can Flash do _____ ?" The answer, as many of us have found, is often times "No." Or at least, not by itself. Hence the emergence of third-party applications, such as Zinc, that give Flash developers the power that software programmers have always had. Having access to the Windows/Mac API essentially turns a Flash programmer into a software developer.

Of course, Adobe won't sit idly by and watch as third-party applications fill a growing target audience's need. The solution seems to be the buzzword of the year in the Flash developing community: "Apollo." According to Adobe,

"Apollo is the code name for a cross-operating system runtime being created by Adobe that will allow developers to leverage existing web technologies, such as Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax, and PDF to easily create and deploy desktop applications. In this session, Mike Chambers will give an overview of Apollo, discuss how it aims to make RIA development and deployment better, and show how to get started developing for it.
(Understanding Apollo—Adobe)

So the question in my mind is, will Apollo fill the void? With using useful yet often buggy and unreliable Zinc-type applications, I've too many times run into walls with features that either aren't what I'd like them to be, or are at best in the beta stage.

It's obvious that the makers of programs like Zinc recognize the power of Apollo, and have reacted to protect their profits and customer allegiance. Soon after Apollo became an office buzzword early this summer, Multidmedia launched a designer/developer competition to encourage users to incorporate Flash/Flex projects into a widget-type application that runs on a user's desktop.

Although Zinc seems to be threatened, I still wonder about Apollo's capabilities. Are we going to have to continue relying on third-party applications or dead Director programs to access things such as multimedia devices, media players, or form-based applications?

Although I hope that Apollo is everything that it's hyped up to be, I am wary of trusting that Adobe will fulfill all my developer needs with this application. Clearly, however, Adobe is in the best position of anyone to capitalize on developer's needs. Especially if the Apollo runtime were automatically pushed with versions of the Flash Player, the capabilities of a large market penetration with the this product seems very appealing.

Apollo is definitely on its way, but developers will wait to see if it truly will be the solution that everyone says it is. If you're like me, you want to know more. A good start would be to register for next week's online event at Adobe, Understanding Apollo.