NEW YORK, Aug. 30, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mobile application developers and IT managers can now use the WorkLight Mobile Platform to create and manage apps for BlackBerry OS 5 and OS 6 devices. With this latest addition to its support of iOS and Android devices, WorkLight now enables businesses to cover all three major smartphone environments as part of their mobile application strategy with a single platform.
"As RIM continues to launch new devices and technologies, with the release of Torch and recent talk of an upcoming BlackPad, we are seeing increasing demand from companies looking to reach BlackBerry's large installed base of users worldwide," said Shahar Kaminitz, CEO of WorkLight. "To help companies benefit from this opportunity, our mobile platform now offers full lifecycle support for rich, capable BlackBerry apps across the WorkLight Studio, Server, Console and SDK."
BlackBerry apps developed using WorkLight can be efficiently optimized for iPhones, Android devices, iPads and vice versa.
"Companies are looking for a solution that can enhance their developers' productivity and target multiple devices in a single effort," said Al Hilwa, program director of application development software at IDC. "At the same time, it is important that applications take advantage of device-specific capabilities as both smartphone hardware and software aggressively evolve to meet end-user expectations."
"The idea that a large portion of development and maintenance costs can be amortized across all three mobile platforms represents a major shift in how we allocate our mobile development resources," said Marc Chaikin, Managing Partner at Chaikin Stock Research, a US-based financial software company. "WorkLight gives us the ability to serve customers with feature-rich apps that deliver unique and sophisticated user experiences across a variety of mobile devices and we're excited about the addition of the BlackBerry devices to the list."
WorkLight Mobile Platform features for the BlackBerry include:
- Development Flexibility – Choose between standard web and native languages and tools to create and maintain highly capable applications
- Cross-platform Portability – Optimize and extend your applications to multiple environments without compromising user experience
- Secure Enterprise Connectivity – Establish secure and scalable integration and delivery with an adapter framework and server-based architecture
- Full Lifecycle Management – Monitor and control the entire lifecycle of cross-platform applications from a single web-based console
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Investment Protection – Leverage fast support of new devices and environments while preventing client-side and vendor lock-in
WorkLight provides full access to BlackBerry device capabilities including contacts and calendar, camera, maps, location, messaging, trackball/trackpad, search and menu. WorkLight Studio also supports a new Build command that automatically creates BlackBerry projects and allows developers to run and debug applications using the BlackBerry simulator, without leaving the Studio.
Currently, the following BlackBerry devices are supported: Curve (models 8330, 8350i, 8520, 8530, 8900), Storm 9530, Storm 2 9550, Tour 9630, Bold (9000, 9650, 9700) and the new Torch 9800.
Availability
Support for BlackBerry is now available with WorkLight 3.3.1. For more, visit: www.worklight.com/whats-new.
About WorkLight – Extend Your Business™
WorkLight is a leading mobile application platform for smartphones, tablets and beyond. Many of the world's largest companies rely on the WorkLight Mobile Platform to create and run optimized cross-platform applications with unmatched development flexibility, secure enterprise connectivity and full lifecycle management to drive more business while radically reducing development cost, time to market and ongoing maintenance. Headquartered in New York, WorkLight's technology has been recently recognized by Gartner, Red Herring, InformationWeek, Network World, eWeek and BusinessWeek. For more, visit www.worklight.com.