Xamarin Expands the Mobile Developer Ecosystem

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Xamarin today announced a partnership with IBM IBM that expands Xamarin's enterprise mobile developer ecosystem by simplifying the development of native mobile apps for iOS, Android and Windows devices that easily connect to enterprise data and systems through the IBM MobileFirst Platform.

The companies have created an enterprise mobile solution for C# developers that combines Xamarin's fully native mobile development platform for iOS, Android and Windows Phone with the IBM Worklight platform for highly secure cloud-based data services.

With this joint effort, Xamarin and IBM developers will now have the tools to create engaging user experiences and deliver secure mobile apps with enterprise scale speed. The estimated six million C# developers can now easily bridge to multi-platform, connected mobile development.

“Together, Xamarin and IBM are creating an end-to-end foundation for developers to more effectively mobilize mission-critical enterprise data in their apps,” said Nat Friedman, CEO and cofounder, Xamarin. “The combined Xamarin and IBM solution gives millions of app developers a powerful mobile enterprise opportunity they have never had before.”

Businesses today face high expectations from consumers and business partners for rich mobile user experiences, driven by the diversity of devices they need to support. Nearly every business workforce has an ever-expanding need to consume and contribute data via mobile devices. Enterprises must build and manage high-performance apps with a device-optimized user experience that securely integrates into the enterprise environment.

To address these needs, Xamarin and IBM are releasing an SDK for Xamarin developers that can be embedded in their mobile apps to integrate, secure and manage apps with the IBM MobileFirst platform. Also being released are add-ons to Xamarin Studio and Visual Studio which enable developers to use these environments to create high-performance, fully native cross platform apps using the power of the IBM MobileFirst platform for security, integration and management.

“The challenge for today's developer is meeting the ever-increasing demand for secure, connected and sophisticated mobile apps,” said Sandy Carter, general manager of Ecosystem Development, IBM. “The IBM relationship with Xamarin expands our support for first class native development that allows millions of C# developers to focus more on innovation and driving business value through mobile."

Gartner reports that mobile apps have now become the primary method for people to interact with the Internet and that by 2016, 70 percent of the mobile workforce will have a smartphone, half of which will be purchased by the employee. In that same timeframe, the firm predicts that 90 percent of enterprises will have two or more device platforms to support. Gartner also predicts that app downloads will surge to over 268 billion apps and users will provide data streams to more than 100 apps and services every day.

The IBM MobileFirst Platform SDK and IBM MobileFirst Platform studio add-ons are available immediately at http://xamarin.com/ibm for the thousands of partners and millions of developers in the Xamarin and IBM ecosystems.

About Xamarin

Xamarin is the new standard for enterprise mobile development and quality, and is used by over 750,000 developers from more than 100 Fortune 500 companies to accelerate the creation and testing of mission-critical consumer and enterprise apps. Xamarin's global customer base in 120 countries includes Dow Jones, Bosch, McKesson, Halliburton, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cognizant, GitHub, Rdio and WebMD. Xamarin is a Visionary in Gartner's 2014 Magic Quadrant report for Mobile Application Development Platforms. For more information, please visit: xamarin.com or follow us @xamarinhq.

About IBM MobileFirst

IBM's 5,000 mobile experts have been at the forefront of mobile enterprise innovation. IBM has secured more than 4,300 patents in mobile, social and security, which have been incorporated into IBM MobileFirst solutions that enable enterprise clients to radically streamline and accelerate mobile adoption, help organizations engage more people and capture new markets. For more information on IBM MobileFirst, visit the press kit or www.ibm.com/mobilefirst. Follow @IBMMobile on Twitter, and see IBM MobileFirst on YouTube, Tumblr and Facebook.