Mobile Development Platforms and Tools (SDK)

Refer to

• Which Tablet PC To Buy In Malaysia ?
  
• Which Tablet PC To Buy In Malaysia ? #2
  

There are supposed to be 7 mobile platforms out there namely iOS,Android, Blackberry Tablet OS, Windows 7 Tablet OS, Web OS, Symbian, Bada.

With HP recently announced that they are halting the production of tablet due to below than expected sales, this leaves the playground to only 6 platforms.

Now let's see what type of tools out there in the market to target these 6 platforms.

A total of 8 tools (SDK) available in the market (could be more out there).

Development Tools (SDK)	Company	URL	Language	Type	Compiled code applicable to (platform)	SDK installable on (platform)	License Cost	Remarks
Xcode 4	Apple	URL	C, C++, Objective C, Objective C++, Java, Apple Script, Python and Ruby	Native code deployment	Mac, iPhone, and iPad apps	Mac OS (Apple)	Membership costs $99 per year	1.) Able to build all sort of apps including games. 2.) SDK is not free and only meant for Apple's platform 3.)Support server side scripting
PhoneGap	Nitobi Software	URL	HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript	Cross platform, non native, requires framework and run time machine to compile codes into native codes	iOS, Android, Blackberry Tablet OS, Bada, Symbian, Windows Phone	Mac OS (Apple)	Modified BSD license or the MIT License (2008)	1.) Requires XCode as pre requisite. 2.) Suitable for phone based apps and business apps. 3.)SDK is free
AdobeAir SDK	Adobe	URL	HTML, JavaScript, Adobe Flash ® and Flex technologies, and Action Script ®	Cross platform, non native, requires framework and run time machine (Adobe Air ) to compile codes into native codes	Android, Black Berry ® Tablet OS, and iOS	Windows, Mac OS (Apple)	Free	1.) Suitable for phone based apps and business apps. 2.) The availability of ActionScript and Adobe technology makes it suitable for games apps as well. This platform is more powerful than PhoneGap. 3). SDK is free
Titanium Studio	Appcelerator	URL	HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Ruby, PHP, and Python	Cross platform, non native, requires framework and run time machine (Titanium Platform) to compile codes into native codes	Android, iOS	Windows, Linux, Mac (Apple)	Community (Free), Indie, Professional, Enterprise edition	1.) Suitable for phone based apps and business apps. 2.) Support web services calls (to cloud services) 3.) SDK is not free 4.) Support service side scripting
Marmalade SDK	Marmalade	URL	C++, Objective C	Native code deployment	Android, iOS,  Symbian, Bada, Web OS, Blackbery Tablet OS, LG Smart TV, Windows Desktop & Mobile, Mobile Linux	Windows, Mac (Apple)	Basic (Free), standard, professional, enterprise edition	1.) Able to build all sort of apps including games . 2.) Supports LG Smart TV platform 3.) SDK is not free
Android SDK	Android (Google)	URL	Java	Cross platform, non native, requires framework and run time machine (Java Run Time) to compile codes into native codes	Android	Windows, Mac (Apple), Linux	Apache License Version 2.0	1.) Able to build all sort of apps including games . 2.) Java based 3.)SDK is free
Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone	Microsoft	URL	C, C++, C#, VB	Non native, requires framework and run time machine (.NET, Silverlight,  XNA) to compile codes into native codes	Windows Phone 7	Windows	Complementary  (Add on to Visual Studio 2010)	1.) Able to build all sort of apps including games . 2.) Microsoft .NET based
Sybase® Unwired Platform (SUP) 2.1	Sybase	URL	HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript	Cross platform, non native,  requires framework and run time machine (SUP 2.1) to compile codes into native codes	iOS, Android, Blackberry Tablet OS	Windows	Require license	1.) Suitable for phone based apps and business apps . 2.) support for SAP data integration through SAP NetWeaver ® Gateway technology. 3.) SDK is not free

Conclusion:

Depending on the platform that you are building on and programming languages, different choices are to be made.

Windows looks pretty lonely and Android is the obvious choice for low investment projects.

Marmalade is pretty interesting to take note because it allows direct deployment of the same source codes into either iOS and Android natively. However, Android is actually not native, it is open source and that is why it is possible. This means that Marmalade is actually prone iOS.

Sybase SUP is also interesting because it caters for SAP data integration, which is a good thing because every body wants to be involved with SAP for it is a huge business.

Conclusions of the conclusion:

1. If you build your code using C++ and Objective-C, you can always port it to Android, because Android is cross-platform and non-native. Thus, I suggest that Marmalade SDK is the preferred choice because you can develop it using Windows platform machine or Mac OS platform machine. Thumbs up!
   
2. If you are most likely going to build business apps, it is a good choice to go for Sybase SUP because then you can also play around with SAP integration.
   
3. If you are Windows hardcore fan, then just stick with Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone.
4. If you are Adobe Flash fan, then just stick with AdobeAir.
   

Instep Learning Asia, Info Trek and Frenclub is organizing a workshop on Mobile App Development Workshop on 3 platforms (iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7) on 18 October 2011 (8:00am to 6:30pm).

Refer for details and to get the promo code.

The code name of the workshop is #madworkshopkl2011.

So, 6 platforms, 8 tools, this is a good time to become part of the history of ICT world.