I agree Paul for the most part but at the same time I have two theories on it.
1. It's the little dogs that bark the loudest. The big dogs don't have to. If Adobe / Macromedia team is confident in their work then word of mouth will spread it. It will get a reputation by virtue of its value. 2. The campaigns they've launched, labs.adobe.com, dev center, support groups, developer relations, component developer relations, etc are all actions that say they are laying the groundwork and foundation for things to come. I would say they are building the Flex ecosystem among the current Flash / Flex / ColdFusion developer community before inviting those that are not already part of it. And then I disagree with my point number one. The web is very large. Getting the word out there for people to know that it exists is important. Many do not know about it. So marketing is important. But I do not like some tactics in Marketing. In most marketing they are sleazy and deceptive. Advertisers promote something that in reality what it is not. So they may be waiting for a time when they think it is ready and matured to a point they want to then go for it. If it was me, when I thought it was ready, I would aim at making Flex known and what it does for you without glamorization. But as Tariq said, if no one knows about it they do not feel safe adopting it. The only way I've got my Flex app in the door is because I knew the project manager. He had never heard of Flex. If Flex was mentioned in Java Developers journal magazines he would know about it. Everyone was expecting me to do AJAX. They thought that was "hot s**t". :P They didnt know that Flex / Flash had any sort of capabilites similar to ajax. @Matt Chotin - So where do they hear about other technologies? Are they reading certain publications? Blogs? When they talk about other technologies do they actually know what they're talking about or is it just repeating the buzz? Other developers at work hear about technology through Java Conferences, magazines (JDJ), word of mouth, blogs. The project managers and his boss' conception of Flash was flashy animation and games. Friends who are not programmers know all about ajax from digg and tech feeds. One friend was all stoked about ajax and web 2.0 and crap like that and I had to explain it all to him. Those outside of the industry are mostly repeating the buzz. Now, once you get their attention with marketing and buzz words and ability you have one more hurdle to overcome before adoption. The entry point is rather steep as well. For all it can do it's definately worth it but, it still remains out of the reach of many. Flex Elements may help an early adoption rate especially to cross over developers from Java, HTML, AJAX, who are wary of such a huge investment. Sorry to get off the marketing topic but I believe it is related. Either that or give many of the popular tech blogs a promotion code to put on their site for Flex Builder for 100% off or something. On 10/4/06, Paul Andrews <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Is it just me that thinks Adobe is doing fine just as they are? I think the real Flex breakthroughs will come as developers start releasing clever apps and people start saying "holy s**t". I happen to think that the developer support by Adobe (and Macromedia before them) is phenomenal. Flex will move forward quietly until it hits it's tipping point, then adoption will surge ahead. Don't worry too much about promoting Flex - let your applications do that for you. Paul ----- Original Message ----- *From:* Tariq Ahmed <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *To:* flexcoders@yahoogroups.com *Sent:* Wednesday, October 04, 2006 9:58 PM *Subject:* Re: [flexcoders] Flex Marketing I'd agree to that. The marketing effort seems to heavily rely on the development community doing that job for them. Things like labs and DevNet are KEY to maximizing technology adoption - but people need to know about it in the first place. To Restate Adobe's Goal: 1 000 000 Flex Developers by 2010. Some HEAVY DUTY marketing is needed. It definitely made sense to capture those who are most amiable to Flex (CF and Flash developers) first and grow from there. I think someone blogged about this before; in that of course Adobe related blogs are going to be heavy proponents for Adobe technologies. But now it's time to penetrate into the rest of the world. In polling my heavy duty tech friends in other industries, they BARELY know what Flex is. Many haven't heard of it. And some have heard of it, just because they heard me mention it. Awareness of the brand and technology needs to be more prevalent. Gimme a cool Flex decal and I'll put it on my car! :) Clint Modien wrote: I mentioned this @ the Silicon Valley Flex User Group meeting the other day but I wanted to reiterate it here and see if I could invoke a response from Adobe. Mr. Mendels? Where is the marketing for Flex? Why keep the most beautiful framework in the world for creating applications a secret? Where are the Visual Studio style banner adds everywhere. Where is the buzz for it on Slashdot. Why arn't other developers in the world standing up and saying is creating applications really this easy!?! I've seen the lights go on in a developers eyes when they get it. When they see what 5 lines of code can acomplish with Flex. They get excited. Excitement sells licenses. (Gets off his soapbox and points to it...) ... Thoughts?
