MACROMEDIA FLEX NOW AVAILABLE
New server solution set to radically improve the effectiveness of enterprise applications

San Francisco—March 29, 2004—Macromedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: MACR) today announced the immediate availability of Macromedia Flex, a new presentation server and application framework that enables enterprise development teams to put more effective interfaces on critical business applications. The Flex server offers a standards-based, declarative programming methodology for delivering rich user experiences via the ubiquitous Macromedia Flash Player. These experiences, known as rich Internet applications, combine the rich user interface of desktop software with the reach and ease of deployment of the web. Partners and developers have already found strategic uses for Flex based rich Internet applications (see attached quote sheet). For more information, to get a trial version of Flex, or to see rich Internet applications built with Flex, visit www.macromedia.com/go/flex.

"Everyone knows the limitations of HTML for application user interfaces, but until now, there hasn't been an alternative that works for enterprise development teams," said David Mendels, senior vice president, Macromedia. "Flex is going to create a renaissance in enterprise application development."

The Flex presentation server is designed to help development teams deliver rich Internet applications in scenarios where traditional page-based HTML applications are inadequate. Examples include rich visual data dashboards, online product selection and configuration tools, and customer self-service applications. These applications are multi-step processes that involve visualization techniques, immediate user feedback, and local processing that are difficult if not impossible to deliver in HTML. The Flex application framework offers an extensible and customizable class library of pre-built components, effects, behaviors, and layout managers for creating more effective experiences for these uses.

The release of Flex represents a key milestone in the emergence of an important new application architecture. This new approach blends the flexibility of services-oriented data access with the superior reach and effectiveness of a cross-platform rich client. The result is applications that are easier to build and maintain, use less bandwidth, deliver more functionality, and run on all leading server and desktop operating systems.

"There is a major industry-wide push toward the use of service-oriented architectures and rich clients as a way of delivering more effective experiences to enterprise customers," said Ron Schmelzer, senior analyst, ZapThink, LLC. "Macromedia Flex perfectly encapsulates the kind of solution that enables enterprise developers to use their existing tools and architecture to bring a more intuitive, compelling user experience to online applications."

The Flex framework supports open tooling, allowing developers to use their text editor or IDE of choice to create applications that run on the Flex presentation server. Later this year, Macromedia plans to release a new Flex development tool code-named "Brady". Built on Dreamweaver MX 2004, "Brady" will offer visual layout, code editing, debugging, and data connectivity tools for creating Flex applications. In addition, IBM is working with Macromedia to develop a Flex plug-in for the WebSphere Studio Application Developer development environment. A pre-release version of this plug-in is available on IBM Alphaworks at www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/wsadflex.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
The Macromedia Flex presentation server released today runs on leading Java application servers, including IBM WebSphere, BEA WebLogic, Macromedia JRun, and Apache Tomcat. A native .NET version is in beta and expected to ship later this year. The trial version, which converts to a non-expiring Developer Edition after 60 days, is available today from www.macromedia.com/go/flex. Flex pricing starts at $12,000 for two CPUs and includes annual maintenance. Discounts are available in some regions for government and educational organizations. Flex is offered exclusively through the Macromedia Volume Licensing Program. See www.macromedia.com/go/mvlp for more information. OEM/ISV pricing information is also available at www.macromedia.com/go/flexoem. "Brady" is scheduled for release later this year, and pricing information is not yet available.

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.

PARTNERS AND DEVELOPERS SUPPORT FLEX FOR ENTERPRISE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT


IBM Global Services
"Enhancing the user interface of web applications will help organizations reduce costs and increase revenue, and Flex enables the next generation of web applications to provide rich, effective interactions. Our customers are looking for ways to deliver greater value to their customers as well as streamline their internal processes, and with Flex, we can now rapidly create solutions that will help organizations achieve these results."
- Roger L'Italien, partner, Interactive Branding & Design, Usability, and eBusiness Innovation Centers, IBM Global Services

iteration::two
"Enterprise customers remain focused on quality software engineering practices and adoption of technologies that fit within existing development workflows, developer skill sets, and IT infrastructures. With Macromedia Flex, we can now deliver enhanced user experiences that meet enterprise requirements."
- Steven Webster, technical director, iteration::two

Organic, Inc.
"At Organic, we believe that Macromedia Flex will be an important emerging technology used to build truly exceptional online experiences. When we participated in the beta, we were amazed at how quickly and easily we built rich Internet applications that not only met our feature and functionality specifications, but also integrated easily with our Flash designs. We are impressed and look forward to utilizing Flex on client engagements."
- Troy Young, vice president of interactive strategy, Organic, Inc.

Taliant Software, LLP
"Flex empowers developers to deliver better user experiences at a fraction of both the effort and time required by other development technologies. It allows developers to build robust, usable application interfaces quickly, easily, and, most importantly, consistently, without having to focus on needless details."
- Sean Voisen, developer, Taliant Software, LLP

Terra Payments, Inc.
"Terra Payments' success is based on providing easy worldwide access to the underlying complexity of electronic payments. Flex fits right into our strategy, helping us deliver the best customer experience at the lowest cost, and with the fastest time to market."
- David Jokinen, vice president of product development, Terra Payments, Inc.

Wagerworks, Inc.
"We are looking at Flex as a way to extend the online Flash-based gaming experience we provide so it can include more sophisticated features previously only practicable in Java - such as rich personalization, client-side logic, and robust back-end integration. Our Java developers easily understand the Flex components and syntax, and really like the ability to use their existing expertise and familiar Java technologies like Struts, Eclipse, and Ant. Flex fits seamlessly within our development workflow."
- Michael Montagna, architect, Wagerworks, Inc.

src:
http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia...available.html

url:
http://www.macromedia.com/flex/

http://web-rat.com/

[zag]

12,000

[miketoons]

Is there an upgrade price....something around $11,000.00. LOL

[Nuno]

That price is just, well, retarded.

[sks447]

we'll see if it lasts more than one cycle, also why another flash app that isnt flash?

[rebooted]

they keep banging out app after app that is supposed to be the next big thing yet it gets more and more expensive to purchase that i can't see it being realistic

[Voodoo192]

And what does it do that we can't do with mysql, php, xml and flash MX. It might be good but there is no way we could justify the price, to do something we can already do for a fraction of the cost

[cobra25]

I can't think of anything at the moment that Flex can do that a Flash developer couldn't do without Flex. Flex has the potential to be a powerful development tool though. The tag based language will empower a much broader range of developers to build RIAs, and could improve workflow and turnaround time for traditional flash developers. I haven't gotten to build anything with the final release, but imo, this tool has potential. I certainly wasn't expecting a $12,000 price tag though....

[Nuno]

How come they don't offer a trial download? Only a CD!

[webRat]

Because the trial CD comes with documentation, etc and it would have been too large to download.

[Nuno]

But they offer online documentation for all of their other products don't they? Either way, still doesn't make any sense to me. If they offer a 160MB Download for CFMX, I don't see why they wouldn't have this.

[brett2]

Reason for another FLash: This is more server side than flash. It's also business oriented. As for the price: That's why we have hackers, crackers, and back enders.... lol.

~Brettt

[x3ro]

Macromedia have actually pulled off a coup here -- trumping the relatively small mindshare achieved by Mozilla's XUL, and coming up with the goods in advance of MicroSoft's XAML, they've set themselves up as a player in the next generation of rich media internet. Now they can play up Flex and MXML since it's the only show in town that's got already got a big market penetration of the client technology. It leverages their strong position from the ubiquity of the Flash player, takes the best of what they've learnt from CF and Generator, and scaled that up for the enterprise; sharp of them to push development over .NET as well as J2EE, that way they get a foot in both camps.

I don't buy the argument that there's nothing that this adds that you can't do with a hodge-podge of Flash and serverside scripting. The point of this is that the whole system is seamless; and for enterprise developers, they have the resources available from their application servers. Sure, for knocking up a website, Flex will be overkill. But that's not what it's for. This is not 'another Flash'. If you read the docs you'll see that this uses the Flash player. And as for the move to pure scripting ... it makes total sense. Trying to write a UI for a web application in an authoring environment that remains, at heart, an animation package, is asking for trouble. This had to happen at some point: the $12K pricetag is pretty steep, but for the moment, they have something close to a monopoly on rich web clients (unless you count the JVM, but that's doesn't come close to meeting the clientside needs of the new breed of web apps -- it's way too 'fat').

[grumble]The only thing that annoys me about Flex is that now I realise I've wasted a fair bit of time trying to build a (way more basic) development platform for myself using Flash and custom XML documents. Dammit! Anyway, I bet MXML will be a b**** to code in .. [/grumble]

[cobra25]

Originally posted by x3ro
The point of this is that the whole system is seamless; and for enterprise developers, they have the resources available from their application servers. Sure, for knocking up a website, Flex will be overkill. But that's not what it's for. This is not 'another Flash'. If you read the docs you'll see that this uses the Flash player. And as for the move to pure scripting ... it makes total sense. Trying to write a UI for a web application in an authoring environment that remains, at heart, an animation package, is asking for trouble. This had to happen at some point: the $12K pricetag is pretty steep, but for the moment, they have something close to a monopoly on rich web clients

exactly