PhoneGap online app builder

I just tried the new Phonegap online service, and it’s pretty impressive.  I already had a mobile html website handy, so all I had to do was upload it as a zip file.  Within minutes, I was running it on my Android phone.  It had also built iPhone, Android, WebOS, and Symbian apps.  It would have completed one for Blackberry too but it found some compatibility errors which it kindly pointed out to me.

Here are screenshots:

Antenna Software

Having acquired the knowledge assets and customers of three competitors (Vettro, Dexterra, and Vaultus) Antenna has established itself as key player in the Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) market. Catering to large, global enterprises, Antenna will transform any business processes by extending the access to enterprise systems to high powered smartphones for service technicians and other mobile employees.

Sybase Mobile

The Sybase Unwired Platform is a leading Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP). Enterprises and software vendors can build native applications for a variety of devices with familiar tools while leveraging common business logic, shared management and security tools, and other Sybase technology components. SAP’s acquisition of Sybase was a defining move in their mobile strategy, although the Sybase platform can still tap other third party and proprietary software.

Technical features include integration tools for back-end data sources such as databases, web services, files, SAP applications, and other SOA enterprise applications. The platform enables development of mobile applications across iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows 32 (laptops/tablets), and Windows Mobile devices. Development is done through Visual Studio or Eclipse. Sybase also promises enterprise-grade features such as scalability, security, and remote administration of software and user profiles on the device.

Sample App created with Unwired Platform:

Download sample code and documentation

Other notable mobile offerings from Sybase include:

Mobile CRM provides mobile customer relationship management with specialized components for coupons, marketing, and sales support.

Mobile Messaging provides SMS integration (formerly Mobile 365). Mobile Payments provides tools for financial institutions create mobile offerings. iAnywhere Mobile Office provides email support for Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange on Windows Mobile, iPhone and Nokia Series 60 devices.

Pros and Cons:
Enterprise scalability, security, and remote administration.
Ability to integrate into enterprise backend systems.
Relatively simple interface builder that doesn’t yet support all devices.
Enterprise price.

PhoneGap

PhoneGap is an open source development framework for building cross-platform mobile apps. Developers can build their apps in HTML and JavaScript. Many underlying functions of the handset are exposed through the PhoneGap web-development interface. For example, PhoneGap makes it possible to access the GPS capabilities on iPhone/iPod touch, iPad, Google Android, Palm, Symbian and Blackberry.

PhoneGap was created by developers Brock and Rob from Nitobi Software in Vancouver in September of 2008, but it’s run as an open source project under the MIT and BSD licenses and has a large base of code contributors. PhoneGap is very compatible with Sencha Touch.

Pros:
Build a native app using web technologies.
It won’t cost you anything, unless you want training or consulting.

Cons:
You will need to submit your own apps through the different app stores.
The UI isn’t necessarily pretty, though tools like Sencha Touch can help.

PhoneGap technical resources:
http://wiki.phonegap.com/w/page/16494772/FrontPage
PhoneGap source code at GitHub
PhoneGap Google Group
Training calendar

PhoneGap has two basic parts:

A native library that makes web views available and native APIs accessible through Javascript calls.

A set of Javascript files that wrap up native APIs includes:
device identification
network access
geolocation
accelerometer
orientation
magnetometer
camera and images
contacts
file access

Since PhoneGap apps are native, they can function without access to a server if they use local storage.

PhoneGap Build is currently in beta and will let a developer run their HTML5 app through PhoneGap to create an application binary which they can then submit to the App Stores.
A Dev browser is also in development to allow testing of PhoneGap apps within mobile browsers.