LOS ANGELES — Oct. 5, 2009 — At Adobe MAX, Adobe’s worldwide developer conference, Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced further advancements to the Adobe® Flash® Platform. Adobe unveiled Flash Player 10.1, enabling rich Web content, video and applications to reach more users across a broader set of devices than ever before. In addition, Adobe announced new HTTP streaming technology for video delivered on the Flash Platform, demonstrated upcoming features of Adobe® AIR® 2 software, released a second beta of Adobe® Flash® Builder and Flash® Catalyst software, and made available new Adobe Flash Platform Services for collaboration.
“We’re excited to be launching such a broad spectrum of advancements to the Flash Platform at Adobe MAX 2009,” said Kevin Lynch, chief technology officer at Adobe. “By delivering rapid innovation across tools, runtimes, services and servers, we are enabling the large and vibrant ecosystem of designers and developers to drive the Web forward with rich content and applications.”
Runtimes Deliver Consistency Across Desktops and Devices; Inside and Outside the Browser
Adobe unveiled Flash Player 10.1 today, which provides a consistent runtime across desktops and mobile devices and is supported by close to 50 participants in the Open Screen Project. Flash Player 10.1 support is expected to be available for a series of mobile platforms including Google Android, Blackberry, Symbian, Palm webOS and Windows Mobile. (See separate press release)
Adobe AIR 1.0, the Flash Platform runtime for delivering Web applications outside the browser, has significantly expanded its penetration with over 200 million installs since its release last year. Adobe AIR 2, previewed today at MAX 2009 and available in beta later this year, will allow for entirely new applications in the desktop context, providing developers with more features to take advantage of desktop operating systems, such as enhanced support for mass storage devices, peer to peer networking and UDP networking.
Tools Provide End-to-End Workflow for Design and Development Productivity
Using Adobe Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst, developers and designers can now work together more productively to create rich, engaging experiences. Adobe Flash Builder, based on the open source Flex® framework, was released today on Adobe Labs as a second beta, complete with a powerful set of new features to enable rapid, rich Internet application (RIA) development. The second beta refines many of the new Flash Builder code editing and testing features, simplifies connectivity to Java services and improves the ability to work with the new “Spark” Flex framework components, enabling a more productive workflow between designers and developers and complete customization of RIAs. In addition, Flash Builder is integrated with the new LiveCycle® Enterprise Suite 2 (see separate press release) to allow developers to more easily create enterprise RIAs and connect with enterprise systems. For more information on Adobe Flash Builder and to download the second beta, please go towww.adobe.com/go/flashbuilder4.
Also released today as a second beta, is Adobe Flash Catalyst, a new professional interaction design tool that easily integrates with the development workflow and enables designers to rapidly create expressive interfaces and interactive content without writing code. New features include the ability to easily add video to projects with custom playback controls, add sound effects for additional user feedback, incorporate easing controls that provide smoother motion and the ability to export projects that run outside of the browser using Adobe AIR in addition to SWF output. For more information on Adobe Flash Catalyst and to download beta two, please go towww.adobe.com/go/flashcatalyst.
The Adobe Flash Platform is tightly integrated with the Adobe Creative Suite® 4 product family, the industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow.
Servers for Seamless Streaming of Online Video Content
Adobe has also unveiled plans to add new protocol support for media delivery with HTTP streaming on the Flash Platform, including integration of content protection powered by Flash Access 2.0 software. Code-named Zeri, the HTTP technologies will be an open format based on industry standards and will provide content publishers, distributors and partners the tools they need to utilize HTTP infrastructures for high-quality media delivery in Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2 both on desktops and devices. Customers today use Flash Media Server 3.5 software for interactive media experiences, high network efficiency, smart caching technology and real time communication and will now have the flexibility to use HTTP streaming. Zeri will support all available media codecs supported today and will continue to support high quality live and recorded media with adaptive bit-rate and network DVR support to the Flash player. With Project Zeri and Flash Media Server 3.5, the Flash Platform delivers the next generation of high quality media experiences at scale.
Services to Enable Real-Time Collaboration
Recently introduced, Adobe Flash Platform Services are online, hosted services that allow developers to add innovative capabilities to Web applications with a predictable, cost efficient deployment model. Developers, advertisers and publishers are now using Adobe Flash Platform Services to make applications sharable, social and collaborative.
Today, Adobe added a new collaboration service to Flash Platform Services. Adobe® LiveCycle® Collaboration Service (formerly Adobe Flash Collaboration Service) provides developers and enterprises with the solution they need to easily build real-time, multi-user collaboration into existing or new rich Internet applications to drive revenue, and increase customer acquisition and retention. Powered by the Flash Platform and part of LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 2, the hosted service can be used to enable in-context collaborative experiences without being concerned about global deployment, maintenance and scalability.
About Adobe Flash Platform
The Adobe Flash Platform is the leading Web design and development platform for creating expressive applications, content, and video that run consistently across operating systems and devices and reach over 98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops. Flash Player 10 was installed on more than 93 percent of computers in just the first ten months since its release. According to comScore Media Metrix, approximately 75 percent of online videos viewed worldwide are delivered using Adobe Flash technology, making it the No. 1 format for video on the Web. Major broadcasters and media companies including Disney.com, MLB.com and DIRECTV rely on the Adobe Flash Platform for delivering video on the Web and the platform powers social network sites such as YouTube and MySpace. For more information about the Adobe Flash Platform visit www.adobe.com/flashplatform.