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Adobe shuts InMarket and AIR Marketplace

The software firm says developers can now easily publish their Flash and AIR apps to multiple platforms without the need for Adobe's centralised publication and distribution tools
Written by David Meyer, Contributor

Adobe is closing its InMarket application publishing platform and AIR Marketplace, arguing that it is now easy for developers to publish Flash and AIR apps to multiple platforms without these services.

The software maker told developers of the closures on Friday, according to a forum post by one developer reacting to the news. In a statement on the InMarket page, Adobe said it could "deliver the most value by helping developers author and publish their apps on multiple platforms".

"Given this focus, we have decided to discontinue development and support of Adobe InMarket," the company said. "We are going to continue to provide support for publishing to different app stores through our tooling."

The InMarket portal, which was only announced in October 2010, was designed to allow developers to write once and publish to many places. Adobe said the portal will close on 31 August and no new applications will be accepted onto the platform with immediate effect. It said any analytics, including revenue reports, will have to be downloaded from the portal before the cut-off date.

The company also pointed out that the new Flash Builder 4.5 and Flash Professional CS5.5 "provide support for publishing to multiple mobile platforms including Android and Apple iOS devices".

People who have used InMarket to publish applications to Intel's AppUp netbook software store will get login credentials for the AppUp developer programme sent to them by Intel before 31 August, Adobe said.

We are going to continue to provide support for publishing to different app stores through our tooling.
– Adobe

However, some developers expressed unhappiness at the timescale for the closure. In a forum post, developer Damon Edwards said the decision to give developers just over a month for the switchover was "crazy".

"I don't understand how you expect publishers will be able to push an update to all the markets they publish to with enough time to get their user base to update before they're totally screwed," Edwards said, addressing Adobe. "One month? You do realise that even updates pushed to AppUp can take up to two weeks for vetting?"

The Adobe AIR marketplace, a repository for apps built using the cross-platform AIR framework, will close "concurrent with the change to InMarket", the company said. It added the marketplace made sense at the time it was launched three years ago, when there were "few distribution opportunities for AIR developers".

"There are now several app stores on desktops, mobile devices and tablets that service AIR developers including Apple App Store, Android Market, BlackBerry App World, Intel AppUp center, Samsung Apps and Toshiba App Place," Adobe said. "We encourage you to use these newer popular app stores to distribute your applications."


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