Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen was at RIM's annual BlackBerry developer convention today with some exciting news about the ways that Adobe and RIM are working together to bring great experiences to the BlackBerry. A good synopsis of the conversation can be found on the Flash Mobile Blog, but the salient points are these:

• Adobe AIR and Flex mobile support on RIM devices
• Better RIM support in Adobe Device Central CS5, enabling faster development of BlackBerry's Java plugin (via Eclipse), Widgets and Themes
• Enabling Photoshop elements and Photoshop.com for sharing and editing pictures and photos taken on BlackBerry phones
• An in-depth discussion of how to create assets for BlackBerry content in CS5
• An in-depth discussion of how to create BlackBerry widgets in Dream Weaver

So why is this important, and why should developers everywhere pay attention?

First, it signals that the Open Screen Project means business. Adobe's Open Screen Project has been a great idea for a long time with a lot of big names. This is one of the first tangible examples we've seen of the Project really bringing new products and increased collaboration to the market place, and it means we can and should take the Project seriously.

Second, it underscores how serious Adobe is about Mobile. Adobe's been preaching the mobile message for a few years now. If the Flash authoring to iPhone demo at MAX this year didn't convince you, the RIM news definitely should. Mobile is the next great frontier for enabling rich experiences, and Adobe is committing itself quite soundly to those devices. Ignore it at your peril.

Third, it marks another large win for UX amongst a difficult clientele: Enterprise. Enterprise clients are typically behind the leading edge of technical innovation (almost by definition.) As RIM's largest customer base, enabling rich experiences on the BlackBerry means bringing some heavy innovation into a market that desperately needs it. This year saw remarkable growth in the acceptance and use of User Experience ideas and innovation in the Enterprise: expect things to continue picking up as more and more enterprise users get introduced to better experiences through Adobe on BlackBerry.

The rest of the internet is going to spend a lot of time talking about what this does to Apple, and whether this sets Adobe up to compete: it doesn't. Apple's entire strategy is geared towards a closed platform and a single device. Adobe's strategy is to impact experience as much as possible on as many devices as possible, and the two will live comfortably in the same market in the same way Mac and PC have for so many years. The larger question coming out of this announcement is whether Adobe's CS5 tools will enable the same type of power for the Android platform. Google is another Open Screen partner so you can bet those conversations are already well underway.

Read more from RJ Owen.