Rhomobile on Wednesday is announcing a public beta version of RhoHub, a Web-based service for developing and hosting smartphone applications.
Described as development-as-a-service for mobile, RhoHub enables development of native mobile applications that can run on smartphones such as RIM BlackBerry, Apple iPhone, Windows Mobile, and Google Android. Developers can run applications over the Web, writing code online from the RhoHub Web site. No software developer kit is needed.
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Developers code applications in HTML on a hosted service instead of relying on complex device programming languages on a desktop, Rhomobile said. Rhomobile's Rhodes smartphone development framework is leveraged for building native mobile applications that can take advantage of capabilities such as GPS and camera.
"The Rhodes framework allows developers to build native mobile applications faster and more efficiently," said Adam Blum, CEO of Rhomobile, in a statement released by the company. "Now by offering development-as-a-service with RhoHub, we reduce development time. Developers don't have to download the Rhodes framework onto their own machines. More importantly, they don't have to install specific smartphone OS SDKs on their machines."
Through Rhomobile's RhoSync technology, developers do not need their own sync server to provide users with synchronized data. Also, RhoHub features an over-the-air provisioning server offering a single download URL.
The public beta program of RhoHub, expected to last eight weeks, is accessible at no charge at this Web site. Once the beta program is finished, RhoHub will be available to developers for a fee based on the number of users and the size of an application.