Embarcadero Technologies, a leading provider of software solutions for application and database development, will on March 18 announce the launch of Appmethod.
According to the vendor, with more devices, more platforms and more form factors to support, app developers are facing growing pressure to rapidly deliver new apps that support multiple platforms and devices, including smartphones, tablets and PCs/laptops. Utilizing Appmethod's cross-platform component APIs, developers can rapidly write complex and high performance compiled mobile and desktop clients, with database access, cloud access, and enterprise interoperability across multiple platforms, all without sacrificing capability or performance.
Growing Problem of Developing for Multiple Platforms and Devices
Over the past few years, Embarcadero has been building out the technology to solve the growing problem of developing for multiple platforms and devices, with a component framework that allows developers to target a single API across iOS, Android, Windows and OS 10, said John Thomas, director of product management, Embarcadero. “This is going to be a huge time savings in terms of getting the product to market. Once they build for one platform they can just recompile and target another platform.”
Appmethod’s Enterprise Mobility Services provide point-and-click mobile middleware connectivity to RESTful cloud services, data and API hosting, and enterprise database connectors, including Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, Sybase ASE, and Informix, to integrate data from any source.
There are Four Main Benefits to Appmethod for Developers
“First of all it is a complete app platform,” he said. “It is not just about client side development and it is not just about mobile development. It is about all the pieces that you need to build modern apps. This includes building rich user experiences on mobile devices and on desktops but also the middleware and the back end piece which is talking to the SQL databases and other assets inside your enterprise.”
Additionally, said Thomas, “one of the bigger benefits is that we are multi-device and what we mean is that with a single source code base you can target multiple operating systems and multiple devices.” A developer can build an app today for android for example and then take that app and recompile it for iOS using the exact same source code but deliver an app that looks and works like an iOS app vs. an Android app with the exact same source code. “This is a big productivity enhancement for developers and specifically solves one of the bigger challenges that multi device developers are facing today,” Thomas said.
A third differentiator for Appmethod, said Thomas, is that unlike other solutions on the market, Appmethod does not require runtime javascript interpreters (or virtual machines); and the apps it compiles run directly on the CPU. “What that means is that you are going to get the best performance possible on these devices because there is no additional software layer that needs to run to support your application.”
Google Glass, for example, said Thomas, does not support javascript yet but Appmethod - since it compiles directly into the CPU - already supports that new type of device. “Those are two important points – the inherent benefit of a high performance application which will deliver the best user experience, and the ability to move to new devices quicker than other solutions.”
Developers can Achieve Productivity Gains of at Least 5x
The final benefit, said Thomas, is that developers using Appmethod can achieve productivity gains of at least 5x over other solutions. “We have a component based development environment and this solution allows developers to target prebuilt pieces of code that would otherwise require writing hundreds of lines of code to create the feature on each individual device so it simplifies the way that they interact with the device and also enables them to utilize our integrated development environment and visual design elements."
The official launch date for the Appmethod is March 18 with a 30-day trial available. The next release will be in June 2014 and will include support for C++ and Object Pascal.
Appmethod is available at www.appmethod.com.