Macromedia MX customers benefit from Product

Macromedia MX customers benefit from product family

Special edition maximises customers ability to get more done with less, while developers benefit from constant connection to Macromedia resources

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - 11 February 2003 - Macromedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: MACR) announces Macromedia FreeHand MX and a special edition of Macromedia Studio MX for Windows as well as Macromedia DevNet, a new subscription service for developers. Macromedia Studio MX Plus, includes Macromedia FreeHand MX, Macromedia Contribute and Macromedia DevNet Resource Kit Special Edition at no extra cost. The new Macromedia DevNet Subscriptions service also provides developers and enterprises with an easy way to get the technologies and resources they need to create and deliver great digital experiences.

Developers are creating groundbreaking customer, partner, and employee experiences with the Macromedia MX product family. Rich Internet applications from developers such as Circle, IOKIO, and Webvertising illustrate the business imperative that great experiences build great businesses.

Circle, a Macromedia Alliance partner, is a digital marketing agency that helps customers like IBM, Microsoft, MINI, and Volkswagen create ROI-driven online campaigns. For MINI (http://www.miniusa.com/), Circle enables users to configure a custom car and then send their "personalised MINI" to the dealer network for delivery, using Macromedia Flash MX to update their choices in real-time.

"We wanted to convey the embodiment of the brand, unique design features, and motoring spirit to our technologically advanced users through a simple and engaging user experience," said Cyril Lemaire, consulting director, Circle. "We selected Macromedia Flash because we felt it was the best tool to achieve our objectives and effectively delivered deep information about the product substance, a sense of exploration, and the articulation of MINI's heritage in a fun and intuitive manner."

Macromedia DevNet offers a comprehensive set of tools, servers, extensions, components, and other resources over a one-year annual subscription period. The service also features a personalised subscriber portal that helps reduce administrative overhead and manage software licenses. Subscribers can download their products, upgrades, extensions, and components through the portal and have them mailed on CD.

Macromedia Studio MX Plus now provides customers with software that helps them leverage their existing investments and more efficiently create great user experiences in a time of smaller budgets and development teams. Available for immediate download today from the Macromedia Online Store at http://www.macromedia.com/go/studiomxplus/. Macromedia Studio MX Plus replaces Macromedia Studio MX for Windows.

"Macromedia is focusing all its effort on helping people of all technical skill levels create great experiences," said Norm Meyrowitz, president of products, Macromedia. "With new products and a new subscription service, we are ensuring that everything we do makes our customer's lives easier and gives them more time to focus on their core development work."

BlueGreen Rentals (http://www.bluegreenrentals.com/) is using Macromedia MX technologies to deliver a better experience for its vacation rental and hotel properties. Users can also search the rental database for what type of vacation property interests them, and then complete the reservation using Webvertising's OneScreen technology.

"Once again, we used Macromedia Flash MX and ColdFusion MX to create a rich Internet application that dramatically improves the online reservations experience," said Jim Whitney, CTO, Webvertising, a Macromedia Alliance partner. "Visitors to Bluegreenrentals.com can now find and book a hotel room in six fewer screens than its HTML counterpart. Less waiting is a better experience, which means the guest is more likely to finish the reservation."

"We feel this new search and reservations system will help to significantly improve our conversion ratio," said Lani Liber, vice president of resort services, BlueGreen. "By presenting the user with alternative properties, if what they have selected is not available, we can replicate the cross-selling style used in our call center and deliver it to our users on the web. In combination with the OneScreen calendar that clearly shows what is available, we feel we will be able to convert visitors to sales much more quickly and frequently."

IOKIO built its digital camera finder (http://www.iokio.com/demos/camerafinder/) to showcase its Macromedia Flash development work. The application provides a simple one-page interface to quickly find digital cameras based on multiple criteria.

"We built the camera finder application to showcase the power of using Macromedia Flash MX to deliver intuitive new ways to view and compare products" said Edward Forbes, managing director, IOKIO. "Compared with the web forms and tables used by many commerce sites, this visual, intuitive application clearly provides a better experience."

"With its MX products, Macromedia is enabling developers to create highly interactive, communicative, and refreshingly distinctive web experiences that allow a company to use the web to serve its customers in new or greatly enhanced ways," said Joshua Duhl, contributing analyst, IDC.

Macromedia will continue to make advances across its three major business initiatives: design/development software, information convenience software, and mobile and device software.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Macromedia Studio MX Plus is immediately available from the Macromedia Online Store (http://www.macromedia.com/store/) with pricing at NZ$2095 (ERP inc. GST). Information on upgrading from one or more Macromedia products is available at http://www.macromedia.com/go/studioupgrade/. Government and volume licensing is available.

Macromedia DevNet Subscriptions will be shipping in March. DevNet Subscription pre-orders are available now through the Macromedia Online Store and Macromedia resellers. Macromedia DevNet Professional introductory pricing is US$1,499, with a special upgrade offer for existing Macromedia Studio MX customers at US$599. Annual renewal fees will be US$999. Macromedia DevNet Essentials is available for US$299. Special pricing is available for government and volume customers. Macromedia DevNet is launching in English. Subscribers can also receive their software via download and CD delivery.

ABOUT MACROMEDIA

Experience matters. Macromedia, Inc. 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. (www.macromedia.com/ap)

MEDIA RELEASE

Macromedia delivers FreeHand MX

New version adopts streamlined user interface, increases Macromedia Flash MX integration

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - 11 February 2003 - Macromedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: MACR) announces the immediate availability of Macromedia FreeHand MX, the multi-publishing solution for conceptualising and designing visually rich graphics for print, the Internet, and Macromedia Flash projects. FreeHand MX includes the streamlined Macromedia Studio MX interface, new productivity tools and panels, improved Mac OS X performance, and increased integration with Macromedia Flash MX. Macromedia FreeHand MX is available for immediate download from the Macromedia Online Store at http://www.macromedia.com/go/buyfhmx/.

"Macromedia FreeHand MX enables graphic designers to streamline their workflow and easily move from concept to design to production in a single file, multi-page environment, empowering them to meet today's needs of doing more with less," said Norm Meyrowitz, president of products, Macromedia. "Macromedia Freehand MX contains a powerful set of illustration and design tools to help users realise their creative vision, whether the end result is print, the web, or a Macromedia Flash MX project."

Macromedia FreeHand MX continues the product's rich heritage of solving design problems for graphic designers and illustrators by providing a streamlined workflow that enables users to create their artwork once and then easily repurpose it to work across multiple media. FreeHand MX provides everything necessary for storyboarding, creative design, multi-page document production, and editing.

"For over six years, FreeHand has been a standard tool in my design work for print, web and multimedia," says Bryan Carey, manager Multimedia Training Services. "In using the new Freehand MX, I have found the integration with other Macromedia MX products such as Fireworks MX and Flash MX provides many productivity benefits."

"The ease in which I can now move graphic files between the Macromedia MX products is truly impressive, and I particularly like the way Freehand MX creates a complete interface design with both animation and ActionScript that can be efficiently imported into Flash MX." Carey continues. "I expect that this time-saving feature alone will be enough justification for most Flash designers to immediately use Freehand MX, as it certainly has become an essential part of my design process."

The inclusion of the Macromedia MX user interface increases efficiency and productivity, by enabling users to work smoothly with multiple Macromedia MX applications. The new Object panel automatically shows all properties that can be inspected and changed for a selected object. Multiple Attributes enables users to apply and order an unlimited number of strokes, fills, and effects to a single vector or text object, which can be used across multiple copies of an object. Users can also apply live vector and raster effects like bevel, blur, and transparency to objects, and users can also quickly reshape graphic primitives while still maintaining their editability. Drag and drop ActionScript navigation commands with the Action tool simplify the creation of hot-linked graphics. Macromedia FreeHand MX is also optimised for Mac OS X to take advantage of the latest features and enhancements

"Macromedia FreeHand MX is even snappier than Macromedia FreeHand 10 and it's speed continues to leave Illustrator in the dust," said Paul Le Fevre, director, Vivid Communications. "I'm also really excited about the new extrude tool, as it goes much further than I expected with the ability to display wireframe, shaded and mesh versions of my objects in varying resolutions. This feature will be a real time saver when I want to quickly mock up packaging designs or 3D ideas.

"Macromedia FreeHand MX's ability to stack multiple attributes and effects just like Macromedia Fireworks in the new object pallet is just fantastic, as is FreeHand's new MX style interface," continued Mr Le Fevre.

In addition to the user interface enhancements, Macromedia FreeHand MX is tightly integrated with other Macromedia MX products. Users can import, place, and preview Macromedia Flash (SWF) files within a FreeHand document, and can edit the file in Macromedia Flash MX using the Object panel. FreeHand also imports Macromedia Fireworks MX PNG files and keeps the objects and text editable. Both Macromedia Flash MX and Fireworks MX can also directly open FreeHand MX files.

"The latest addition to the Macromedia MX family was worth the wait and with so many new features it's hard to know where to start," says Tony Redhead, principal, Red Square. "If you're like the designers at Red Square, and work almost exclusively with Macromedia Fireworks MX you will certainly appreciate the ability to import editable PNG files into FreeHand MX. For the wow factor try the extrusion tool, paste in a path and finish it off with a bit of 3D rotation," concluded Tony Redhead.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Macromedia FreeHand MX is available for immediate download today from the Macromedia Online Store (http://www.macromedia.com/store/). Macromedia FreeHand MX is priced at NZ$935 (ERP inc. GST), with upgrades from FreeHand 9.X at NZ$365 (ERP inc. GST) and upgrades from FreeHand 10.X at NZ$249 (ERP inc. GST). Localised versions in French, German, Japanese, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Korean, Swedish, Spanish, and Italian will be available at a later date. Education, government, and volume licensing is available.

ABOUT MACROMEDIA

Experience matters. Macromedia, Inc. 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.

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