Appcelerator's Titanium 2.0 Supports New Mobile Cloud Services
Simplifies integration of a broad range of cloud services into mobile apps.
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Appcelerator, a mobile platform company, has released Titanium 2.0, which includes Appcelerator Cloud Services (ACS) and support for mobile Web apps.
The new release simplifies integration of a broad range of cloud services into mobile apps, enabling Titanium developers and any native or mobile Web developer to quickly create, configure, and deploy rich, cloud-connected applications. Developers can use ACS to leverage all of the new Titanium 2.0 features and capabilities or use it as a standalone offering in conjunction with developers’ choice of a third-party platform tool.
Appcelerator Cloud Services addresses the strong demand for cloud-connected mobility by developers and the enterprise. The Q1 2012 Appcelerator/IDC Mobile Developer Survey showed nearly 60 percent of developers are either using or considering using cloud services in their mobile applications. IDC forecasts that this year, 80 percent of enterprise apps will be deployed on cloud platforms.
ACS helps companies integrate cloud services such as push notification or check-ins into their mobile apps quickly and economically. Underscoring its open and extensible approach, Appcelerator’s new solution enables app publishers using Objective-C, Java, PhoneGap, Sencha, and HTML5 technologies to create and configure an instantly scalable server-side backend, add engaging mobile app features without writing server code, and deploy their cloud-connected app with the push of a button.
Tasks that usually require costly server programming or tedious integration with multiple SDKs are performed through one simple interface. Developers pick which APIs to use and Appcelerator deploys and maintains a full server stack that includes a database, search engine, file storage, and application logic.
ACS is offering more than a dozen of the most popular cloud-based mobile features, designed to drive deep and extended user engagement. The available cloud services include:
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User management: provides access, authentication and cross-platform controls
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Photos: store, share, and publish photos from within your app
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Photo collections: store, share, and publish photo albums from within your apps
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Places (rich location storage): harness location to provide better search results and pointed ads -- for example, without setting up GIS or a latitude/longitude server
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Social integration: enable customer login and authentication using Facebook and Twitter
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Custom data objects: create and analyze data derived from searchable fields, such as location or interactions with other users to optimize app features and offers
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Push notifications: push messages to customers and employees regardless of device and whether or not the application is running.
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Check-ins: enable check-ins from within any app
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Status updates: make apps more social by enabling users to post status updates from wherever they are
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Chat: embed IM within apps to allow multiple user and user group threads
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Ratings and reviews: add ratings, reviews and “likes” to apps without having to build an entire rating machine and server-side infrastructure
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Discussion forums: provide users the ability to post updates, reviews or other content and allow others to respond to their posts
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Messaging and e-mail templates: plug-in pre-built messaging and e-mail templates.
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Client identification: cloud-connected apps help developers identify the classes of devices people are using to access apps, providing insight into how to better optimize content
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Key values: simple, unstructured storage for any kind of content
Easy Cloud Integration
Adding ACS to any mobile app is simple, regardless of which programming language is used and which platform the app is being built for. Appcelerator offers iOS, Android, JavaScript, and REST SDKs, ensuring cloud services can be integrated into mobile apps built with Objective-C, Java or HTML5, as well as any other third-party publishing platform.
For Titanium customers, ACS JavaScript APIs are already integrated into Titanium Studio, providing a seamless environment for both front- and back-end development. This integration is a natural extension for any of Appcelerator’s 1.6 million Web developers, who already use a JavaScript API to build native iOS, Android, and HTML5 mobile apps.
Pricing and Availability
Titanium 2.0 and ACS are available immediately on a freemium pricing model. In addition to a free download version, commercial versions of Titanium 2.0 and ACS are available under a variety of pricing plans based on usage levels of training, support, and services required.
More information is available at http://www.appcelerator.com.