Appcelerator, the leading platform for rapidly developing native mobile, desktop, and tablet applications using Web technologies announced today that it has acquired Aptana, the leading integrated development environment (IDE) for building web applications. The acquisition sets the stage for a new standard in next-generation application development by providing Web developers with a best-in-class, enterprise-grade development platform to rapidly build rich native applications that integrate easily with the cloud. The acquisition also brings together two of the world’s largest web development communities, Appcelerator’s and Aptana’s, to create a huge application development base of over 1,500,000 application developers.
Riding the Wave: Cloud-Connected Applications Go Mobile
Web developers are uniquely positioned to benefit from the two biggest trends in technology today: cloud computing and mobility. As the industry shifts from a 3-tiered web model to a distributed mobile world filled with rich Internet-connected mobile applications, so too does the need for a platform that better orchestrates and enables the extension of the web to mobile devices.
“The Internet has moved from an end destination to a cloud service that connects the web to billions of different devices and millions of applications,” noted Scott Ellison, VP of Mobile & Consumer Connected Platforms at IDC Research. “The Appcelerator/Aptana acquisition reflects the underlying need to rapidly build cloud-connected mobile applications while minimizing the fragmentation risk that has clearly arisen from device proliferation.”
Combined Offering Creates Best-in-Class, Cross-Platform Development Solution
Today, Appcelerator leads the industry in cross-platform development with tens of millions of users using over 10,000 native iOS, Android and desktop applications. In addition, with over 3,000 APIs in its flagship product, Appcelerator Titanium, the company also offers the deepest set of capabilities available of any development platform on the market. The Aptana acquisition moves the company to the next level by extending the capabilities of Appcelerator’s popular development platform to include world-class development tools that significantly improve developer productivity, integration and cloud connectivity.
“We have always focused on enabling the best possible native application experience,” commented Jeff Haynie, CEO, Appcelerator. “This announcement furthers that vision by empowering our growing community of developers to build, test, and deploy native, cloud-connected mobile applications faster and with higher quality than ever before. We are also excited to introduce Aptana’s millions of developers to the mobile innovation wave that we have been riding and supporting as a company over the past two years.”
“Today two great web technology companies have come together in a very synergistic way,” said Douglas Schrier from Rembrandt Venture Partners. “The combination of both companies’ brands, products, and developer bases create a huge opportunity for the next generation of web and mobile apps.”
“We think bringing Aptana’s affinity with a large web developer base together with Appcelerator’s solutions for the mobile developer will create a lot of value,” said Arthur Patterson of Accel Partners.
Beta Available in Q1, 2011
As part of the acquisition, the entire Aptana team has joined Appcelerator to continue building out the company’s platform and tools. Appcelerator plans to integrate support for its mutual customer base and combined developer community over the coming months.
Appcelerator will begin offering a free beta of its integrated Appcelerator/Aptana offering in late Q1, 2011. This release will include a full debugger, auto-complete, and robust editing tools for Titanium-based applications. The company will also be making additional product roadmap announcements over the coming months.
