OStatic

The skyrocketing success of Apple's App Store and the recent launch for Research In Motion's (RIM) App World for BlackBerry is clear proof that people want third-party apps for their mobile phones. Unfortunately, developers with a brilliant idea for the next blockbuster app typically have to decide which platform to choose before they write their first bit of code -- iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile, etc.

The creators of PhoneGap think it's nonsense that developers have to write the same app in several different programming languages to reach the widest swath of mobile phone customers, so they developed an open source, cross-platorm framework that bridges the gaps among them.

Early this morning, the Eclipse Foundation announced the Pulsar Initiative, a joint effort to create an open, standard mobile application development platform. The Pulsar Initiative is led by the mobile device manufacturers Motorola, Nokia and Genuitec, while industry leaders such as IBM, RIM, and Sony Ericsson Mobile are among the participating members.

The Pulsar Initiative's first goal is to define a common set of Eclipse-based tools in a packaged distribution, allowing developers to create mobile applications for multiple devices using a single, familiar development environment. This saves developer's time (and sanity) by bringing applications to more devices without needing to be intimately familiar with every handset's software development kit.