Funambol Readies v8.5; Demos "Build Once, Deploy Everywhere" Framework

by Kristin Shoemaker - Feb. 03, 2010Comments (0)

February is a great time to visit Barcelona -- the sights, the culture, the history, and of course, the Mobile World Congress. As an astute mobile enthusiast, you've probably noticed that open source platforms, applications and services are cropping up all over the mobile industry. It's no secret that a few of us here are fond of Funambol, thanks to its cross-platform functionality and community involvement.

At the Mobile World Congress, Funambol will unveil new products to interest mobile users and developers.

Funambol v8.5 improves and extends its mobile cloud push and sync services to accommodate more rich media and social networking sites -- and devices. Sure, the usual smartphones are supported -- including Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms -- but Funambol v8.5 can push and sync with some digital picture frames, ebook readers and tablets (no magic required!).

Face it, if syncing all that information between devices isn't complicated, it's at least time consuming. If you are a mobile developer, you know this all too well -- in an even more poignant way. It's a challenge to develop mobile apps from the start, for all the wrong reasons. What platform will get my app to the most users? Which platform will it run best on? How much time can I dedicate to maintaining and updating on all of these platforms? What platform or potential user group am I just going to have to exclude because of time and technical constraints?

That's where November's announcement of Funambol's Zapatec framework comes in to play. The new framework allows developers to use AJAX and JavaScript to create applications that can be deployed on (and make the most of) popular platforms -- in one place.

Funambol's v8.5 is scheduled to release in the next ninety days. Developers interested in taking a closer look at the new "build once, deploy everywhere" framework can request a demonstration at the MWC or stop by Funambol's booth.