What’s Appcelerator®?

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Appcelerator® is an open source developer platform designed to enable programmers to build native applications that work across a variety of devices. This platform is designed to allow these applications to be created with only the knowledge a developer already has of web-based programming. The company’s stated goal is to address the broad range of modern devices, from phones and personal data assistants to desktops, tablets and laptops. To address this need, Appcelerator® allows a developer to program an application once, then use the platform to build versions that will run natively on multiple devices. The key difference between this approach and its predecessors is that it creates separate applications for each environment, rather than a framework designed to work across multiple environments.

The main target audience of Appcelerator® are web developers. Thus, the programming skills needed to build applications with the platform are no different than those needed to build Internet-based applications. However, the concept is not simply to create a single version of the application that works on different operating systems. Instead, Appcelerator® creates an application version for each target device. As a result, the final product will not only run within the operating system for an iPhone® or iPad® and an Android®-based phone at the same time, but will run as separate applications tailored to each device.

This type of approach can provide several benefits especially for small developers. Otherwise developing an application that runs smoothly on more than one device could be a daunting challenge for a novice or indie programmer. Depending on the devices to be targeted, developing an embedded application might require knowledge of several programming languages ​​and familiarity with multiple operating systems. Beyond those initial hurdles are man-hour hurdles, with testing, debugging, and reworking an application for even a single operating system that could be a large time investment.

For developers and larger companies, the savings from this sort of approach may be no less significant. Having to build only one version of each application to serve multiple devices can free up manpower and increase overall productivity. This leaves the potential for man-hours to be invested in further research and development of additional applications, or refinement of the primary application that may not have previously been possible due to time or budget constraints.

The company that produces Appcelerator® also has the declared goal of improving the situation for the users of the application. This can be achieved by allowing applications that otherwise would have had fewer or fewer features to create a richer experience through native programming. Also, this can be accomplished through more applications on the market that previously would have been limited to specific operating systems but now work across multiple formats and devices.

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