MACROMEDIA UNVEILS FLASH PLATFORM
Proven technology powers digital content, applications, and communications; Macromedia previews next-generation Flash Player
San Francisco, CA - June 6, 2005 - Macromedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: MACR) today announced the unveiling of the Macromedia Flash Platform for delivering the most effective experiences for rich content, applications, and communications across browsers, operating systems, and devices of all kinds. The Flash Platform provides the solutions that make great digital experiences possible. It is a proven technology that companies and institutions such as America Online, SAP, Wharton, and Yahoo! have adopted for their diverse needs (see attached quote sheet). Today the company also previewed the next generation of Macromedia Flash Player, now in beta. Code-named Maelstrom, the updated player will dramatically improve Flash expressiveness and performance. For more information, please visit http://www.macromedia.com/go/maelstrom.
The Flash Platform is a complete system. It includes a universal client runtime, an openly published file format (SWF) specification, a robust programming model, time-tested development tools, dedicated server technology, integrated solutions, and the support of major systems integration partners, ISVs, and OEMs. A host of third-party tools and solutions based on the Flash Platform leverage the platform, such as SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer (announced in April, see separate release). The Flash Platform enables differentiated experiences in a variety of vertical markets: financial services, education, government, and telecommunications including mobile. For more information about the Flash Platform, please visit http://www.macromedia.com/go/platform.
"The Macromedia Flash Platform is a perfect complement to SAP NetWeaver and Enterprise Service Architecture (ESA)," said Roman Bukary, vice president of solution marketing, SAP. "With ESA, users have a rich repository of business functions, processes, and services, and Macromedia Flex provides a great way to enhance the presentation tier for those services. Together, SAP and Macromedia can raise the bar on development productivity and quality of user experience for SAP Analytics and a wide range of other business applications that leverage ESA."
"Major enterprises and organizations are embracing the fact that great experiences mean great business," said Stephen Elop, CEO, Macromedia. "Great experiences improve customer and employee interaction, directly improve sales, and deliver a compelling brand experience, leading to significant ROI through increased use, brand loyalty, and customer satisfaction. The Flash Platform is quickly becoming a core component of the enterprise's overall business strategy."
"Flash has grown up into today's Flash Platform, delivering a next-generation user experience to customers who develop interactive content, applications, and communications for use across multiple browsers, operating systems, and devices," said Kevin Lynch, chief software architect, Macromedia. "The Flash Platform provides the solid foundation for delivering experiences that perfectly complement existing enterprise infrastructures and server-side technologies like J2EE and .NET."
Macromedia Flash Player, which forms the backbone of the Flash Platform, is the leading runtime for delivering effective user experiences across browsers, operating systems, and devices of all kinds. Currently installed on nearly 600 million Internet-connected desktops and mobile devices, including more than 100 licensee companies in the consumer electronics space, it supports a pervasive platform that commands a million-strong developer community whose existing content can be leveraged on an array of devices.
The Maelstrom release of Flash Player will further strengthen the Flash Platform with enhanced expressiveness, performance improvements, dramatically improved font display, and a new, higher quality video codec. Maelstrom is currently in beta and will be available for public download later this year. NPD Group research shows that new Flash Player releases typically reach 80% adoption on Internet-connected desktops in just 12 months, whereas alternative client platforms take many years to reach a similar audience. For more information about Flash Player adoption rates, please visit http://www.macromedia.com/go/player_adoption.
"A gap exists between two models where established technology fails to meet the demands of new business requirements," said Mark Driver, vice president and research director, Gartner. "As developers build increasingly complex, mission-critical applications, they must not lose sight of the richness that traditional graphical user interfaces provide. Also, the need for IT agility dictates access to applications from multiple devices. Platforms that allow the rapid delivery of rich communications, content, and applications on consumer devices are helping business innovators become aware of the competitive advantage of delivering better digital experiences for their customers."
The Flash Platform encompasses the tight integration among the following core products: Macromedia Flash Player as the ubiquitous, cross-platform client; Macromedia Flex for rich Internet application development; Macromedia Flash MX 2004 for creating engaging, interactive content; Macromedia Flash Communication Server for two-way audio/video streaming; Macromedia FlashCast for delivering mobile content; Macromedia Breeze for delivering online communications; and the Macromedia Flash Lite client runtime for use on small-footprint, mobile devices. Future versions of these products, as well as new products, will continue to enhance the platform over time.
In support of today's Flash Platform news, Macromedia today unveiled a new initiative to help broadband telecommunications providers deliver solutions on the Flash Platform (see separate release); announced membership in the Eclipse Foundation to develop a new industry-leading IDE based on Eclipse for building rich Internet applications that run on the Flash Platform (see separate release); and announced significant milestones in the adoption of Flash throughout the mobile content ecosystem (see separate release).
ABOUT MACROMEDIA
Experience matters. Macromedia is motivated by the belief that great experiences build great businesses. Our software empowers millions of business users, developers, and designers to create and deliver effective, compelling, and memorable experiences — on the Internet, on fixed media, on wireless, and on digital devices.
INDUSTRY LEADERS ENDORSE MACROMEDIA FLASH PLATFORM
Akamai Technologies
"Our customers know that a great online experience matters and impacts their business. The combination of Akamai services and the Macromedia Flash Platform results in the delivery of high-quality Flash content, applications, and streaming for heightened web interactions and experiences. Akamai has seen a steady increase in content served to Macromedia Flash Player to support a variety of strategic online business initiatives."
—Lisa Arthur, chief marketing officer, Akamai Technologies
America Online
"The Macromedia Flash Platform helps us provide AOL members with rich online experiences, which we use in earnest throughout the AOL service. Macromedia has been a great partner for us, going back to 1999 when we first started shipping Flash Player as part of the AOL client. I love to see what our creative staff does each week to bring new experiences to life using the tool set. In my mind, nothing beats the Flash Platform in its combination of rapid development abilities, broad platform support, and, above all, enablement of rich user experiences."
—John McKinley, president of digital services and CTO, America Online
Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association
"Tracking issues on the pension plan account data of our 171,000 active Colorado public-sector constituents is no small task. Macromedia Flex has given our managers and external vendors the ability to access, manage, track, and update issues pertaining to member retirement account data in real time. Because Flex is based on Macromedia Flash, we are able to track issues through a rich, web-based application that provides a seamless experience for our end users."
—Bruce Deen, programmer/analyst, Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association
Goowy Mail
"We developed Goowy.com to raise the expectations for web-based e-mail. The team evaluated the capabilities of HTML, JavaScript, DHTML, AJAX, and Macromedia Flash. Flash offered the most robust framework and tool kit for achieving our vision of breathing life into a typically static e-mail experience. In addition, Flash provided Goowy Mail with a true rich client environment, allowing us to process more information and logic on the client side, resulting in a faster, more robust user experience."
—Alex Bard, CEO, Goowy Mail
Intelligent Finance
"Offset banking has become really big news in the UK mortgage market in recent years and Intelligent Finance has been at the forefront of raising its profile. However, consumers are keen to see how they can personally benefit before signing up. Our offset calculator, built with Macromedia Flex, is a vital tool as it enables them to see simply and clearly exactly how much they can save by bringing their mortgage, savings, and current accounts to Intelligent Finance. It can be a very powerful demonstration and will enable the bank to easily sell the benefits of offset."
—Katie Curran, e-commerce manager, Intelligent Finance, a division of Halifax plc
Ludicorp (Flickr)
"Flickr helps people around the world manage their photos online. Using the Macromedia Flash Platform, we built a user-friendly site that allows people to easily share their favorite photos with others and establish their own social networks. A combination of Flash with HTML and JavaScript were the essential ingredients we needed to create a great online experience that withstands the rigors of our digitally savvy user base on a daily basis."
—Stewart Butterfield, president, Ludicorp
Miami-Dade Police Department
"The Incident Command System initiative is a top priority for the Miami-Dade Police Department Training Bureau. The Macromedia Breeze platform is enabling us to provide our command staff with a media-rich, truly interactive online training environment. The Flash component is lightweight and simple to deploy, and enables our department to provide on-demand training without concern for bandwidth limitations or server load."
—Sean Holtz, sergeant, Miami-Dade Police Department Training Bureau
National Semiconductor
"The Macromedia Flash Platform is a critical part of our WEBENCH online design environment, which enables engineers to design sophisticated electronic systems using National's analog technology in an interactive, real-time environment. The robust compatibility of the Flash Platform is unmatched by any other product on the market. This makes our developers as productive as possible and saves technical support resources. Most importantly, it complements our WEBENCH campaign to give engineers the best design support and online simulation tools in the world for analog designs."
—Phil Gibson, vice president of corporate marketing, National Semiconductor
NEC System Technologies
"We have used rich Internet applications since their early stages for constructing Internet-based business systems, and we have an excellent track record for providing solutions in the customer relationship management and electronic commerce fields. Compiling our strengths in these areas, in October 2004 we announced our new product, iBizBlock for Macromedia Flex, a business component that enables the efficient construction of high-quality, Flex-based RIA systems. Furthermore, we will shortly begin the sale of iBizBlock for SOA, a server solution stepped up for service-oriented architectures. As we come closer to realizing a ubiquitous network, new styles of work and new business models are created one after another. We strongly believe that the Flash Platform will be the preferred choice of platform for supporting such trends."
—Shin Umatani, associate senior vice president, NEC System Technologies, Ltd.
O'Reilly
"Macromedia's choice of Eclipse as the basis for its next-generation Macromedia Flash development tools speaks volumes about the impact of open source on commercial software development — and about Macromedia's commitment to making Flash an essential platform for next-generation Internet applications."
—Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media
Purdue University
"Macromedia Breeze supports a wide range of teaching and learning scenarios, anywhere from faculty creating interactive online content for on-demand use to setting up environments where virtual teams of students can work on projects. One way that students can build a better conceptual understanding of what they're learning is for them to teach it to someone else. Students can create course content just like their professors do. As part of the Flash Platform, Breeze provides a lot of flexibility for how professors and students think about learning beyond the traditional classroom."
—Bart Collins, director of digital content, Instructional Development Center, Purdue University
Salesforce.com
"Macromedia has done it again! They have changed the entire dynamic of the industry with Macromedia Breeze and the Macromedia Flash Platform. Without a doubt, Breeze is the most exciting new application I have seen this year. Everyone should be using it to communicate with employees, customers, investors ... or in whatever it takes to get the word out. I am blown away by this technology."
—Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, Salesforce.com
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
"The Macromedia Flash Platform allows the Wharton School to develop applications that are rich, scalable, and well structured. We can produce web-enabled applications quickly and with far more interactivity than in the past. And this lets our faculty create a deeper, longer-lasting educational experience for our students."
—Kendall Whitehouse, senior director of information technology, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Yahoo!
"We serve the world's largest Internet audience, offering an array of products and services to hundreds of millions of users. Macromedia Flash technology helps make it possible for us to deliver information in new and exciting ways, continuing to ensure that our users have the best Internet experience possible."
—Geoff Ralston, chief product officer, Yahoo!
