iAnywhere Solutions Inc. announced on Tuesday some new developer products that are aimed at improving the development of Web-based applications. It’s an announcement that one industry analyst said will put more capabilities in the hands of developers.
A subsidiary of Dublin, Calif.-based Sybase Inc., iAnywhere said its free M-Business Anywhere Developer Edition — software that simplifies the development of database-powered mobile Web applications — will improve the delivery of Web-based content and applications to personal digital assistants, with minimal recording. The company also announced better integration capabilities for its for M-Business Anywhere with SQL Anywhere Studio database.
Developers can now easily and quickly deliver a wide range of Web-based applications to the palm of users’ hands, the company said in a statement.
The new developer version has the same features as M-Business Anywhere Application Edition. The difference is that once an application has been developed, customers must buy a license for the product before they can deploy it, said Ojas Rege, iAnywhere’s senior director of mobile solutions.
Since iAnywhere is already established in many enterprise markets, Warren Wilson, practice director for mobile and wireless business solutions with analyst firm Summit Strategies Inc. in Boston, said Tuesday’s announcement will enlist developers who are scattered across many industries. Once more developers are onboard with the technology, the enthusiasm for the software will grow, and drive sales for the company.
He explained that the technology is solid, easy to use and it does a good job of collecting and formatting the information, but now that developers can get a chance to use the free software and “test the waters,” they might be more likely to implement it within their own company.
“I think [iAnywhere] has a pretty good sense developers will react favourably, and this is a way to drum up more enthusiasm and turn up that support from developers,” he said.
The integration for M-Business Anywhere with SQL Studio Anywhere, which is a relational database for use on handheld devices, adds functionality to Web applications, Wilson added.
“Instead of just taking Web pages and reformatting them and caching them with PDAs, it provides access to databases and it expands the range and power of the applications that you can build using this combination of tools,” he said.