SAP’s mobile technology strategy has ratcheted up a gear this week with the launch of a new glut of developer services and industry interconnections. Along with a free mobile developer license and the new SAP mobile apps partner program, there is also now support for integrating software development frameworks from Adobe, Appcelerator Titanium, and Sencha.
NOTE: Appcelerator’s Titanium is an Eclipse-based IDE, SDK, and library of connectors used to build mobile, desktop, and web applications. For mobile, Titanium Studio provides a framework to develop and connect apps to SAP and 220 other data sources. Titanium SDK seeks to the enable programmers to deploy native, hybrid, and mobile web apps all from a single JavaScript code base.
SAP is calling for programmers to “co-innovate” on its open SAP mobile platform. Somewhat frustratingly, the firm has at this stage concentrated more on its “flexible tiered engagement model” and its “end-to-end support system” than it has on the substance of the technologies that lie herein. But this, says SAP mobile division president Sanjoy Poonen, is in order to, “Create the easiest path for B2B and B2C mobile apps to flourish from inception to market.”
The SAP mobile platform tiered engagement model includes a complete hosted landscape trial option that comes with the SAP ERP application with no local installation needed. There is a free developer license on Amazon Web Services (AWS) — and this option offers access to a hosted developer environment through AWS and an SDK local download with no developer fees so users only pay for cloud hosting. Then there is the complete SAP Mobile Apps Partner program for those that want the technical and commercialization support.
The SAP Mobile Apps Partner program provides starter packages for development licenses and hosted sandboxes and development environments. It also provides access to a community of developers for collaboration, SAP certification of mobile apps, and the ability for partners to market and sell their apps via SAP Store.
In a related news story from earlier this year, SAP’s Poonen is quoted as follows, “We believe SAP is the only mobile platform provider delivering on the promise of an open platform architecture that supports innovative third-party development environments and tools, providing flexibility for customers to implement the right mobile app every time. SAP, customers, partners, and the entire ecosystem now have a tremendous opportunity to rapidly produce millions of high-quality apps using the tool of their choice.”
