I notice you have a recent post... do you have a expected date for the public release of Sharify?

thanks!

So, 2 years later where are we at?
- Sharify is dead
- Adobe Market Place is pathetic
-- Sales / Traffic are horrible
-- The approval process is slow, and uni-directional (no email updates, no correspondance at all)
-- This admin console is pathetically simple (1 graph, with no totals, or any real useful info)
-- The customer support is basically non-existant

Adobe, if you're going to kill something off, then at least replace it with something you're willing to fund properly.

I stuck with Shibuya/Melrose/InMarket/Adobe MarketPlace for over a year, and saw almost no development whatsoever on the admin console. And this is when you're in beta and should be rapidly iterating!?

What ,do you have a single dev, working part-time on this thing? It's ridiculous...

They just made Flashden change, but the other, not so popular, places have been left alone as of now.
What's up with all of these name games?

Doesn't it help Adobe that others want to use and enhance their platform?

Take a C++ developer for instance, say one day that developer stumbles upon Flashden (Activeden) or Sharify and sees that they can make money using the Flash platform; they are probably going to have to eventually buy an Adobe product if they want to seriously develop for the platform.
So, why does Adobe have any beef with sites that direct people to their own products?
Really seems counter intuitive.

In 2002 I fell in complete love with the Flash platform and in '06 I thought the Adobe take over was a very good thing.. but what's happened to Kelvin seems a bit shady to me.

The Adobe community only gets hurt by these kinds of things, "A house divided by itself cannot stand."

1. Thank you for responding back and accepting my apology.

2. Again, please let me know when you come out of beta.

3. I apologize if the "tone of my emails" seemed short. Looking back at our conversation, I believe the only email that appeared short was the last one and that was because I was responding from my phone and, to be honest, did not have anything more to add at the time.

4. With regard to your points around Shibuya, I will relay your feedback to the team as your request is quite reasonable. So you know, in my role, I am focused on the lower level API's that make up the AIR runtime.

We are in fundamental agreement on all of this.

On a related note (and this could be a blog entry on it's own) - I think that until Flex/AIR are able to be held up as something other than a perception of "Flash" it will be hard to go beyond a perceived value of FREE 'entertainment' or low cost 'do-dad' application. "Flash" does not cast an impression of 'mission critical' or 'essential' for customers/end-users on a regular basis.

I think Adobe 'stepped on their own' with that decision to standardize on the name of 'Flash Platform'. That forces us to fight the 'snickers' in the Enterprise when they hear "Flash". This is an unfortunate knowledge gap that has been deepened within the enterprise in my own opinion that will prolong commercial acceptance of Flex/AIR applications - and keep prices and perceived values LOW....

So only time will tell - true value should have a price. If an Application is is needed, customers will not have a problem paying for it, or re-paying for it over time. If it is nothing more than a passively used 'widget' or screen decoration, that is a different story/purpose/existence.

Cheers!

Dave

Thanks for the detailed reply and the further information on Nitro LM!

I can definitely see the market for apps/ services protected by Nitro LM and I think that what you say makes a lot of sense in that marketplace. I would definitely recommend companies building a large, complex applications which ARE their product to check it out.

On the other hand, I think that there is a large market for apps which are simpler and cheaper and sold for a one off fee (as seen by the massive success of applications in Apple's App Store). And I feel that the advantage of AIR is that it empowers lots of developers trained in the ways of the web to create exactly these simple yet desirable applications.

Basically I feel that Nitro LM and Sharify serve completely different markets. It just remains to be seen where Shibuya fits into all of this - hopefully all three solutions can co-exist but we shall have to see...

Kelvin.

Nothing from our end from a notice standpoint regarding Shibuya - just noticed it by accident. (God works in mysterious ways) :) Adobe did take notice of our solution about 2 years ago and we have a good working relationship with them.

Nitro-LM has several levels of capability and service level:

- 'Lite' Versions for unlimited usages with encryption support,
- Standard for licensing and encryption,
- Enterprise for the whole enchilada!

Nitro-LM is designed for customer's who 'actually' are trying to make money. While it can be used by and for anyone, we are providing a 'service', something that needs to be paid for (typically annually).

This assumes that the Customer's Product(s) that we are licensing/protecting is -ALSO- providing value, and that our Customers have an expectation for some type of recurring revenue (e.g. upgrades, maintenance, SaaS, etc.).

The 'hip' trend of creating/running Micro-ISV's (i.e. congratulations you created and own a 'job') that place emphasis on a ONE-TIME purchase with FREE upgrades for life are probably -NOT- a good relationship with us...

Why? Because their OWN business model works AGAINST themselves!

Specifically, they will eventually saturate their customer base and not be able to generate more revenue to keep the lights on in order to react to demands from existing customers for 'new' features that they have obligated themselves to provide - 'forever'... It does not matter how many customers are obtained or in what timeframe; more customers means a bigger support cost down the road - the business model just does -not- work in the medium/long run. The feeling of accomplishment is short lived, and the opportunities that are missed are significant.

Hope that makes sense. There are so many screwed up ways people/companies are conducting their business it is hard for us to identify the 'perfect' customer - but if the customer fundamentally is designed to produce a 'recurring' revenue, we will probably have a great relationship. If they are designed to self-destruct, we will advise alternatives (things to consider any why), but in the end will be happy to sit back and watch the destruction. After all, everyone loves to watch 'implosions'... :)

Dave

I agree with you that Sharify and Nitro-LM serve different segments of the market and that there is plenty of space for them to co-exist. I have looked into Nitro-LM before and it seems to be a well built and robust solution. One thing that I wasn't clear on even after reading through your material is how much it costs for the developer to include. It seems like the licenses are rented from your company and need to be renewed every year?

I'd also like to clarify that the latest version of Sharify includes encryption for code protection. I'm interested in whether you guys had any notice from Adobe that they were developing Shibuya?

Thanks,

Kelvin.