A company called Particle launched a new technology platform that allows developers to automatically create native apps for any platform.
You know the problem right? There are so many platforms out there and developers need to re-code their apps for each of them. Particle is definitely not the first contender in their space, but it seems they do have what it takes to compete.
Particle’s approach is different in that sense that it starts from Java, which is used for programming on the mass-market feature phones, allowing developers to turn their Java apps into iOS and Android applications that will run on advanced smartphones. Moreover, the company’s platform (and extendable cross-platform IDE) also supports ActionScript3 and C#.
The problem I see is that there are not that many Java apps out there (when compared to all apps running on the iPhone and Android smartphone). So the question is – will Particle find its targeted audience among feature phone developers? I’m sure there are quite a few of them in emerging markets, but whether they are interested to port their work to modern smartphone platforms is another thing. We’ll definitely watch where this goes…