Macromedia Key note speakers address future of Flash and provide industry insights on Macromedia's product strategy. Winners in 16 categories of Flash Film Festival are announced. Flip Media wins 'site of the day' award for Mercedes-Benz' F1 project and also becomes Macromedia Alliance Solution Provider for the Middle East.

13th July 2004, Dubai (UAE): The 12th Flash Forward conference and Flash Film Festival, the oldest and largest Flash user conference in the world, where the latest ideas and concepts in design, development, education and inspiration are shared within the Flash and internet community, concluded on the 9th of July.

Flip Media, the only interactive agency from the Middle East attending, provides the update on the latest industry insights by Macromedia and key speakers from the Flash community direct from New York:

"Flash used to be known to only a small internet community as an animation tool that catered for interactive user experience beyond the capacities of static HTML sites. Today, Flash represents 93% market penetration on the user side and has become a powerful tool not only for web development but also in the sector of software application and most importantly rich internet applications", explains Martin Diessner, Global Business Development Director, Flip Media. He adds: "The trend goes into mobile applications and devices, set-top boxes, Flash DVDs, Video and Music streaming, and integrated server applications where Flash is used as a front end to interface with complex application networks."

Macromedia Flash plug-in version 6 represents now 93% market share and version 7 has achieved a penetration 73% globally, compared to 64% of Windows Media Player, 53% of Apple QuickTime and 58% of Real Player, which makes Macromedia Flash the ultimate front end tool for rich media such as streaming Video over the internet or rich internet applications.

According to Doug Benson, Head of Product Development, Flash Team at Macromedia, this summer will see a version update of the authoring environment Flash MX 7.2 under the codename 'Ellipsis' that will address performance, stability, more than 2000 bug fixes and documentation. The next release for Flash under the codename "8 Ball" is planned to be delivered in 8-12 months and will include complete re-write of the player, various parts of the authoring environment and an integration of emulators to support the development of applications for mobile devices. Flash Light version 1.1 that was recently launched for mobile phones and devices catering for audio support and integrated mobile networking has already been integrated in over 12 million mobile phones in Japan, currently the largest target market of Flash Light.

Macromedia Flex is the latest server side application that supports run-time creation of Flash object on the server without involving the Flash authoring environment. This new product is targeted rather at IT specialists and programmers than designers as all authoring is done in script. The main advantage of Flex is collaborative working which is not supported by the current Flash IDE: In the future, Flash teams all over the world will be able to create large scale applications and web projects in Flash built with the Flex scripting language.

Further developments at Macromedia show a partnership agreement with Vital Streams which supplies the Flash community with streaming web services and hosting, catering for high bandwidth live web streaming events and also broadband ad distribution. Furthermore, Macromedia Central will re-launch this summer with a new version under the codename "Gemini" providing a central desktop platform for rich internet application distribution.

During the conference, Macromedia also organized in-depth focus groups where members of the Flash community could contribute to future developments of Flash and other Macromedia products. Next to feature wish lists and user interface requirements, Flip Media discussed the issue of Arabic enabled dynamic text in Flash and other Macromedia products that currently do not support right-to-left editing, and certain solutions have been found already.

The highlight of the conference crowned the 12th Flash Film Festival where some 16 winners from 60 worldwide nominees were selected in categories of best design, technology, typography, sound, animation etc. Flip Media received recognition with the Macromedia 'Site of the Day' Award for its work for the first bi-lingual English and Arabic Formula One website, which was designed and developed for Mercedes-Benz Middle East - one of Flip Media's many international clients.

Flip Media has also been approved  for the Macromedia Alliance Level Partner Program to become a Middle East solution provider with product expertise for Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Flash MX 2004. "This partnership agreement underlines Flip Media's commitment to the Flash community and will strengthen its regional and international competence in interactive developments and trends", says Martin Diessner.

If the prestigious Flash Forward conference and Flash Film Festival ever come to the Middle East is still a question to be answered. Flip Media has presented a concept to the organizers of the conference and to Macromedia with a plan to conduct one of the many 2005 events in Dubai which is currently under discussion.

-Ends-

About Flip Media:
Flip Media is a Dubai based media company that operates primarily in the Middle East but also works with international clients providing alternative advertising and marketing consultancy. Flip Media is an advertising technology and marketing provider to advertising agencies, technology partners and clients.

Flip Media has developed unique advertising products and technologies like streaming broadband advertising, 3rd party verified online media tracking services, and blue tooth kiosk applications that have been marketed in the Middle East, the United States and in Europe.

Flip Media FZ-LLC
Dubai Media City,
Loft Offices Bldg 1, #210
PO Box 502372
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Telephone: +971(4)3911612
Facsimile: +971(4)3912384
Website: www.flipcorp.com
Email: info@flipcorp.com

© Press Release 2004