world, Cascada Mobile today announced a new development platform named "Breeze" that can transform ideas into globally distributed mobile applications in as little as fifteen minutes. Cascada’s Breeze platform provides anyone with knowledge of even the most basic Web programming languages the easiest method for creating, testing and distributing mobile applications to phones anywhere in the world. Breeze-created applications are subsidized by mobile advertisements making the service free for anyone to use.

“The mobile handset is very clearly the critical application platform going forward,” said Craig Mathias, a principal with the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group. “But building mobile applications has traditionally been difficult and expensive due to complex programming environments and the wide diversity of handsets and mobile platforms. Cascada Mobile’s new Breeze Platform enables anyone with knowledge of Web programming to build mobile applications quickly and inexpensively, and equally important, to distribute these apps to a broad range of handsets easily and efficiently.”

Unlike the “write once, run anywhere” world of Web programming, where a single set of code can work universally on any computer, operating system and Web browser, mobile application development is fraught with complexities. Mobile phones can have different screen sizes, button and keyboard configurations, and other features that impact how a mobile application runs. Despite the fact that J2ME, the mobile version of the Java programming language, is supported on billions of phones in the market today, an application that runs on one phone may not work on hundreds of other phone models, even if those phones are similar in design or come from the same manufacturer.

To ensure that an application works on all handset makes and models, it must be tested. The daunting task of testing applications on hundreds of different phones by itself puts mobile development out of reach for a great many developers. Beyond the testing, global application distribution requires dealing with more than 100 different wireless carriers and network operators. The Breeze platform reduces the testing of mobile applications for hundreds of different handsets down to a single run on the Breeze Simulator. Developers receive a simple line of code they can put on their websites, blogs or social network pages allowing people to download the application merely by entering their mobile number. Breeze also takes care of distribution via SMS, WAP Push and direct download from a mobile phone, ensuring the right version of the application is sent to each end user’s phone.

“By removing the complexities inherent in mobile application development, we believe we’re going to see a new era in mobile application innovation as the mobile platform becomes available to literally millions more developers,” said Alan Lysne, CEO of Cascada Mobile. “Now that we’ve simplified the creation, testing and distribution of mobile applications, we expect to see evolution in the mobile arena akin to the evolution on the Internet that became Web 2.0.”

The Breeze platform takes code written in HTML, JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and automatically converts it into J2ME code, also known as the Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME. As a result, any Breeze created application can run on hundreds of different mobile phone types. Breeze enables Web programmers unaccustomed to mobile development to add important functions that don’t exist on the Web, such as using the built-in camera, accessing the contact list or even adding an exit button for their applications.

Once the HTML and JavaScript is compiled into J2ME, Breeze produces a mobile application that can be distributed to phones anywhere in the world, and will automatically detect the correct version to send to a phone. Developers receive a simple line of code they can embed onto their websites, blogs or social network pages allowing people to download their new application directly to their phone over their wireless service provider’s network.

Breeze offers developers the ability to create fully integrated mobile applications, and not merely mobile “widgets.” Increasingly common, mobile widgets are small applications that usually require a separate widget container to be installed on your phone, in addition to each widget. With Breeze, the result is a standalone application that installs on a phone with its own icon. Breeze gives developers a full range of HTML, JavaScript and CSS capabilities, plus the ability to take full advantage of the features on mobile phones, such as built in cameras or contact lists - the only limitations are imagination and the capabilities of mobile phones.

During Cascada’s three month closed beta, developers used the Breeze platform to easily create applications from Tile Puzzles to Image Slideshows and News Readers. With today’s announcement, Breeze is now available to anyone who wants to create applications for mobile phones.

The Breeze platform is free for any developer or programmer to use to create and distribute their mobile applications. To subsidize the cost of distribution, Cascada Mobile ad-enables each application. End users of Breeze-created applications will see mobile ads while using the applications. Options are available for developers who wish to pay for their use of the Breeze platform in order to offer ad-free applications to end users.

Information Source:    Business Wire