Yahoo recently updated its mobile development platform, Yahoo Blueprint, for developers to build standalone applications for Java, Windows Mobile, and Symbian smartphones, as well as to create mobile web sites accessible via virtually any HTML or xHTML mobile browser. The new tools were released as developer previews.
“Yahoo Blueprint solves the most challenging problem plaguing today’s mobile landscape—now with one click, you can write once and have mobile services run across a critical mass of devices and operating systems, potentially reaching millions of users,” said Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Yahoo! Connected Life.
Before the addition of the new tools, Blueprint was primarily used in creating widgets for Yahoo's flagship mobile application Yahoo Go. Blueprint includes a full software development kit for third party developers.
Yahoo is also using Blueprint internally to develop iPhone applications and is in discussion with Apple on how to make Blueprint for the iPhone available to other developers.
Commenting on this expansion of Yahoo Blueprint, Michael Gartenberg, VP of mobile strategy, Jupitermedia/mobiledevicestoday.com said, "Yahoo is laying the groundwork for an extraordinary opportunity -- something that is potentially more important than building a new operating system."
According to Gartenberg, key reasons for developers to use Yahoo Blueprint are Faster development time: develop your mobile content quicker and more efficiently than ever before, Beautiful user interface: optimizes and renders the presentation of your content based on the unique device capabilities, Powerful feature set: such as maps and location based services, with more features expected to become available in the near future, Thousand of devices: runs across a wide range of phones, from smart phones to low-end devices, and Completely open: anyone can develop their application, with customizable features and monetization options. |
