Adobe's new Digital Publishing Solution was designed to help marketers, designers and others within organizations repurpose existing content for use in immersive apps without having to write any code, Adobe said. Such apps can then be delivered through popular app stores.
With the software's new collections feature, for instance, content is now grouped together and delivered to smartphones and tablets on iOS, Android and Windows. Push notifications, in-app messaging, intuitive search and content discovery, and social network integration are available.
The tool also integrates with other content management systems -- Drupal and Wordpress, for example -- along with HTML design tools. It supports InDesign CC-based workflows as well.
Built-in analytics are powered by Adobe Analytics Essentials for Publications, a part of Adobe's Marketing Cloud. This includes retention analysis, acquisition tracking, funnel conversion and more.
For publishers and enterprises that want to monetize content, Adobe DPS also supports a variety of payment options for apps, such as single purchases, subscriptions and all-access models.
Finally, Adobe DPS includes a new accounts control system that offers enterprise-level control, with the ability to assign permissions to each person involved in the app creation process.
There's been a widespread shift in the business software world away from custom development and toward packaged solutions enabling business users to play a bigger role in application development, said Melissa Webster, a program vice president with IDC.
Mobile apps provide a higher level of engagement and a more intimate experience than many other marketing engagement methods do, Webster noted.
"The breakthrough here is the notion that mobile apps can be created and maintained by non-tech people," she said. "It can be put in the hands of the designer -- it doesn't have to be a coding effort."
That, in turn, "changes the game," she said, by making mobile apps less expensive to create and thereby more accessible as a marketing tool for companies of all sizes.
Meanwhile, Adobe's emphasis on "continuous publishing" means that companies can publish content more frequently, thereby increasing their odds of reaching customers at the right time, she said.
"Every company today is a publisher," Webster said. "I think we'll see more start with mobile and digital and evolve their print publications as companions or digests."
Adobe Digital Publishing Solution can now be purchased as a stand-alone package, as an add-on component for Creative Cloud enterprise, or as part of Adobe Experience Manager Apps. Per-app pricing is based on use case, but existing Adobe Digital Publishing Suite customers will get access to Adobe Digital Publishing Solution as part of their current license agreements, Adobe said.