David Deraedt

At last, the Adobe AIR marketplace has undergone a much needed facelift which you can try by yourself here.

In my opinion, the previous marketplace felt pretty clumsy, yet still bearable since it was just a beta release. We knew from the start that sooner or later, we'd discover what Adobe really had in mind for us. So when I got the news of a brand new website (beta v2 ?), I was eager to see if it could live up to the hype. As you'll see, this is a very decent makeover, but so far, I cannot say that I'm completely sold.

The homepage new layout is much better than the previous one. A typical browser window now lets you see as much as 8 applications : 2 big featured apps + six thumbs. That's to be compared with the old home page in which one or two app screenshots could been seen at a time. This means that more applications will get the chance to be seen at a glance, which is a very good thing : many underrated apps are yet to be discovered.

Users can subscribe to RSS feeds from the marketplace. They can choose between four feeds corresponding to the four home page tabs : Highest Rated, Most Popular, Staff Picks, and Most Recent. However, they cannot subscribe to the feed of a particular publisher.

Talking about publishers, I really like the fact that they can now create a mini profile, with a logo. This is a good place for self promotion, and also tends to help users trust the product.

Publishers are also supposed to have access to a dashboard, to deal with various reports such as ratings and other stats. This is of course great for analytics and, dare I say, absolutely essential for any serious publisher. Unfortunately, as of today, this feature is still not available.

The application page (aka Offering Detail page) has also been revamped. Most notably, it displays a much larger image.

Unfortunately, there isn't much more to see, there. You still only have a single picture per application.
The application can be shared with friends, but only via email, where social network / bookmarking integration would have been much appreciated.

So my early conclusion is that this new marketplace is a good move, which should have gone further. At least it shows that Adobe cares. However, for them (and us, as publishers) to complete with other applications marketplaces, they'd better take things a bit more seriously.

My personal wish list

• Give the possibility to provide several pictures per application, maybe even a SWF or video.
• Add social bookmarking features to the product details.
• Provide a richer application description text. A bullet list is a must have for feature lists.
• A better submission form. It's not a big deal since only publishers are concerned, but still, it really does feel a little cheap.

And finally, why can't we have an optional integrated online payment account, or the possibility to plug existing ones (from say, paypal for instance)? Add that, then you can call it a marketplace. ;)

Of course, I probably missed a few things here. What kind of features would you like to see on the AIR marketplace ?