Multimedia tools publisher Tribeworks is taking on the big guys with a new competitive upgrade offer. The company has announced that users of Macromedia’s Director can purchase iShell 3.0 for a limited time, with proof of Director ownership, for US$399 or a cross-platform version for $599. (Special education pricing is also available.)
iShell is a QuickTime-native multimedia authoring suite that enables the creation of customized media players that launch from a Web site. With version 3.0, the product is now Mac OS X compatible.
Director is Macromedia’s multimedia authoring application. A new version, Director MX, is due this month.
“Our focus is on productivity,” said Duncan Kennedy, CEO of Tribeworks. “Our goal with this promotion is to give users of our competitor’s product a higher return on their investment; so when projects come along that require fast turnaround times, full XML support, MPEG-4, Unicode, and the like, they’ll have the tools required to stay competitive and satisfy their clients.”
The special upgrade offer is valid in North America to registered users of Macromedia’s Director through January 17, 2003. The competitive upgrade also includes the MediaSchool All-Access Pass, with more than 70 virtual seminars on a wide variety of digital media topics, which is normally priced at $198. iShell 3 is available now for Mac OS X, Mac OS 9 and Windows.
“Perhaps it is a bit of a David and Goliath story, for a small company like ours to take on the Titan of Multimedia, but our product is simply a faster way to build complex multimedia applications. We have dozens of testimonials from educators, and large and small companies, who will publicly be testifying about how our product facilitates a huge increase in productivity,” Kennedy said.