Aptana and Nokia Team to Improve Mobile Web Development

Aptana has announced that it is adding support for Nokia S60 devices and the Nokia Web Runtime to its set of tools and services for streamlining development and delivery of mobile Web applications.

Kevin Hakman, director of evangelism for Aptana, said Aptana’s and Nokia’s tools eliminate the need for specialized knowledge and specialized software to build applications for each brand of device. Now that more and more mobile devices support the standard Web technologies, the number of mobile applications is set to grow rapidly, he said.

Nokia is among the first to support using standard Web technologies such as HTML, JavaScript and CSS for installable applications. And with Aptana’s support for Nokia S60, developers can use these familiar technologies and their existing skills to create mobile applications that can be downloaded to run on Nokia S60 devices.

The Nokia WRT Plug-in for Aptana Studio comes with an extensible set of AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and X M L) controls with which developers can create richer, more interactive mobile applications, Hakman said. Aptana Studio makes many other AJAX libraries available for use as well, he said. 

To ease deployment, the Nokia WRT Plug-In for Aptana Studio generates the downloadable application packages ready to install on Nokia S60 mobile devices, the company said.  For rapid testing during development, applications can be deployed to a mobile phone via a Bluetooth connection, Hakman said.

"Nokia WRT is a significant harbinger of more things to come in the mobile application space" said Paul Colton, CEO of Aptana. "If you want to have a large market of mobile apps that drive more consumer and business utilization of mobile services, tapping into the creativity and entrepreneurial inclinations of millions of Web developers makes lots of sense. Now that Nokia, armed with its global distribution of mobile devices, has paved the way for using standard Web technologies for installable mobile apps, there's a strong precedent for others to follow suit."

“Going beyond the Web browser, vendors like Nokia and others are taking the logical next step: letting Web developers create installable mobile applications using the same HTML, CSS, JavaScript and AJAX skill sets,” Hakman said. “And by being installable, these applications can tap into the phone’s capabilities such as GPS, dialing and more.”

"Aptana Studio is an ideal platform for us to bring these capabilities to market,” said Craig Cumberland, director of technology and applications marketing for software platforms at Nokia.  Cumberland leads the team that created the Nokia WRT Plug-In for Aptana Studio.

"Aptana had already demonstrated significant expertise in its free, open-source tools for Web development and support for AJAX libraries,” he said. “Aptana's tools combined with Nokia's WRT Plug-in for Aptana Studio give Web developers a great platform for delivering widgets and Web technologies to WRT-capable devices."