WaveMaker Helps Enterprises Add Mobile Interfaces to Existing Apps With Delivery of Hybrid Mobile Rapid App Development (MRAD)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwired - Dec 9, 2015) - WaveMaker, a leading enterprise Rapid Application Development Platform software company, today announced the availability of hybrid mobile app development as part of its open standards-based Rapid App Development (RAD) platform. With the consumerization of IT, organizations of all sizes now have an acute and growing need to modernize and mobilize their application interfaces. By bringing RAD to hybrid mobile app development, WaveMaker enables companies to create mobile user interfaces for their existing apps more efficiently, saving time and money by speeding development, leveraging current staff without requiring coding skills, and reusing database schema or data structures.

Today's users increasingly demand mobile access to apps, and modernizing the front-ends of existing apps to add mobile capabilities using web technologies is more efficient than investing time and money in building native apps for each of the mobile platforms such as Android, IOS, and Windows. Those platforms and devices change rapidly, requiring constant updating of native apps, which is a maintenance headache. Plus, building new front-end apps is easier than modifying existing web apps because mobile apps have newer interaction paradigms, including different navigation controls, multiple screen resolutions, and platform-specific usability guidelines. Most mobile app building requires complex API development to access enterprises' backend systems and server-side databases.

However, the worldwide shortage of front-end developers is hampering organizations in their efforts to mobilize applications. Gartner forecasts mobile phone sales will reach 2.1 billion units by 2019, which will fuel demand for apps in the enterprise that meet the high performance and usability of consumer apps. The firm says that by the end of 2017, market demand for mobile app development services will grow at least five times faster than internal IT organizations' capacity to deliver them. (Source: Gartner Press Release, June 16, 2015 http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3076817)

WaveMaker's Rapid App Development platform reduces the need for a large pool of deeply skilled front-end developers. WaveMaker's RAD platform already supports responsive front-end development that uses the web or mobile browser and now -- with the addition of hybrid mobile app development capabilities -- these apps can be installed on smart phones. These Hybrid Mobile Apps can also leverage device capabilities such as camera, geo-location, network, local file storage, etc. As a result, organizations are able to:

• Make changes at the speed of business: zero-code hybrid mobile app development eases both development and maintenance of apps for smartphones
• Support multiple platforms and devices quickly and easily: IT can develop once and support multiple platforms and devices simply by switching themes, rather than rebuilding the app for each platform or device
• Empower functional teams with limited front-end development skills to build modern UI for mobile devices
• Simplify packaging such apps in-house using the integrated cross-platform installer builder (based on Apache Cordova), instead of sending apps to a remote site mainly for packaging

"From what we've seen so far, we expect companies will be able to save up to 80 percent of the time and effort they now spend building enterprise apps with modern UIs, particularly for mobile platforms," said Deepak Anupalli, vice president of engineering at WaveMaker. "WaveMaker uses web technologies to provide a complete solution for rapid visual development of apps for smartphones."

Hybrid MRAD is particularly valuable for the following types of applications:

• Business productivity apps, enabling employees to use those apps on a variety of platforms, versions, and devices
• Internal apps that automate company business processes, harnessing device capabilities and enabling remote use of API services
• Media apps, enhancing the power of the app by supporting mobile devices

Hybrid MRAD may not be suitable for gaming and animation apps or for highly interactive consumer-oriented apps, such as Uber or Instagram.

Key features of WaveMaker RAD Hybrid Mobile App Development
WaveMaker's hybrid mobile app development extension delivers many new features for adding mobile capabilities to existing apps, such as:

• Mobile-ready widgets that enable touch gestures like swipe, tap, and pinch
• Support for various screen resolutions and multiple pixel density needed for good UI on smartphones
• Mobile widgets that can access device capabilities such as camera, geo-location, network, and local file storage without the need to write code
• Single-click build cross-platform installer that abstracts out the complexity in understanding build systems and the various tools/SDKs provided by Android, IOS, etc.,
• Mobile-ready page templates that provide a good starting point for most common UI capabilities, reducing the need for UI designers for every app project

Key differentiators of WaveMaker RAD Hybrid Mobile App Development
While there are other codeless mobile development platforms that offer hybrid (MRAD), WaveMaker's platform provides many unique capabilities, including:

• Flexibility in tailoring the UI and interactions to suit the functionality of the app
• Native look-and-feel for widgets and the ability to control these aspects through mobile themes from the same app written once
• Access to device features and seamless data binding so mobile widgets can interact with enterprise data stores and web services
• Seamless and rapid integrations, with a REST API automatically created for every app built using WaveMaker
• Support for multiple platforms with a single-click cross-platform installer for WaveMaker Enterprise customers that can build enterprise Android apps and enterprise IOS apps

Pricing and availability
WaveMaker RAD Hybrid Mobile App Development provides everything companies need to start a mobile project today, including source code control system integration, team development, and ability to test on variety of platforms and device sizes. It is available for a 30-day trial on the WaveMaker Online platform, and has convenient pricing options. Sign up at WaveMaker and get started for free: visit http://www.wavemaker.com/get-started

About WaveMaker
WaveMaker's software platform revolutionizes how enterprises build, deliver and manage modern custom applications, improving business agility and fostering innovation. WaveMaker leverages the latest trends and technologies in Rapid App Development (RAD) such as multi-device auto-responsive interfaces and componentized app assembly, Docker for app-optimized container deployment on private infrastructures, and APIs and MicroServices Architecture (MSA) for scalable integration. WaveMaker, Inc., a Pramati Technologies company, is headquartered in Mountain View, CA with offices in Hyderabad, India. For more information, visit www.wavemaker.com, or like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or connect with us on LinkedIn.