Microsoft has turbo-charged the world of mobile app development by announcing the acquisition of Xamarin, a nimble and promising startup, back in February. Xamarin, although a relatively new player in the tech landscape, has created waves by enabling developers to construct an app once, and then seamlessly run it on any device or web browser.
This innovative startup’s offer to simplify and unify the mobile app development process has caused quite the stir in the tech community. However, the truly thrilling prospect here lies not just in Xamarin’s present capabilities but its future potential too.
*From left to right: Nat Friedman, CEO and co-founder of Xamarin; Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of the Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise Group; and Miguel de Icaza, CTO and co-founder of Xamarin.*
Announced recently was Microsoft’s intention to integrate Xamarin into Visual Studio, its pit stop for developers. This integration will come at no additional charge, marking a unique opportunity for developers worldwide. Included within Microsoft’s Visual Studio Community—an accessible development environment for individual developers, small professional teams, open-source projects—are fully functional editions of Xamarin tools, facilitating the creation of Android and iOS apps.
Also, Xamarin Studio’s community edition, the adaptable development environment that runs on OS X, is available alongside a license mirroring that of Visual Studio Community. Further sweetening the deal, Xamarin’s professional and enterprise features have been incorporated into Visual Studio Professional and Enterprise at zero additional cost, stated John Montgomery, the Director of Program Management for Visual Studio and .NET.
From the responses garnered among the developer community, this integration promises to be a welcome boon, streamlining the development of multi-platform apps. However, it remains to be seen how these updates play out in practice, and what additional innovations they might spur on in the rapidly evolving app development landscape.
*Image Source: Microsoft*
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Paul Femi Balo is the founder and publisher of TechBooky. He covers artificial intelligence, African technology, digital infrastructure, enterprise technology and the global digital economy.
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