Macromedia Innovates

By Judith Dinowitz

Macromedia made three major announcements on February 10th. Taken all together, these announcements have me convinced that rather than standing still on their past achievements, Macromedia is trying to offer a better quality of service for the same dollar.

First, Macromedia announced the release of Freehand MX, the MX version of their popular vector-based drawing application. Freehand has been repositioned to be a multiple-page environment, allowing for multiple pages and for a broad range of file formats in one program.

Then Macromedia announced the availability of Studio MX Plus, a new product that includes Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, Flash Player 6, Fireworks MX, Freehand MX, ColdFusion MX Developers Edition, Macromedia Contribute and the Devnet Resource Kit Special Edition (which includes the DRKs 1 and 2 that were released earlier this year.) The addition of Freehand MX and Contribute to this suite of products makes it a more powerful option for today’s multi-tasking developer, and allows for easier interaction between the products. There is an upgrade option for developers who currently own licenses to Studio MX.

Macromedia also announced a new subscription service called Macromedia Devnet, that provides developers and designers with all of the tools and technologies that Macromedia offers. The service is available in two tiers, Macromedia Devnet Professional and Devnet Essentials. The Professional level includes a copy of all of Macromedia’s design tools (Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, Fireworks MX, Freehand MX and Contribute), development-only licenses to all Macromedia server tools (ColdFusion MX Enterprise Edition, ColdFusion for J2EE, JRun, Flash Communication Server MX and Flash Remoting MX), and immediate access to the latest software updates and upgrades to all of the products above. It also includes the four Devnet Resource Kits (formerly known as the Developer’s Resource Kits) put out annually. Similar to what Microsoft is doing with their MSDN subscription service, Macromedia is giving its Devnet subscribers easy and early access to its tools, news and a personalized portal for downloading their software. There is also a lower upgrade price for current Macromedia Studio MX licensees.

These three announcements show the continuing commitment on Macromedia’s part to offer new options and expanded service to its current customer base, and its hopes to attract and hold a greater market share in the corporate world. As usual, Fusion Authority has included all of the articles and releases that have come out about these announcements in this issue. I invite you to explore the links in the articles below so that you can come to your own informed opinion about these products.

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