Microsoft has acquired Xamarin, a cross-platform mobile app development platform provider, which will help developers create apps will easily work across iOS, Android and Windows mobile operating systems. This is part of Microsoft’s efforts to woo developers into making apps for the Windows 10 Mobile platform. Here’s what you need to know.
Through the Xamarin platform, developers can develop, test and deliver mobile apps to any device. Xamarin had already works with the Visual Studio development environment and this acquisition will provide even more integration. With Xamarin now a part of the Microsoft family, Visual Studio developers can use a singe shared C# codebase to build native apps on iOS, Android and Windows. This would be welcome news for developers that are interested in building cross-platform native apps.
According to Microsoft .NET product manager Scott Gu:
“Xamarin’s approach enables developers to take advantage of the productivity and power of .NET to build mobile apps, and to use C# to write to the full set of native APIs and mobile capabilities provided by each device platform. This enables developers to easily share common app code across their iOS, Android and Windows apps while still delivering fully native experiences for each of the platforms.”
The acquisition of Xamarin can be seen as Microsoft recognising that Windows Phone cannot catch up to the already vibrant mobile app ecosystem fostered by Apple and Google. Microsoft desperately needs more developers to populate its Windows Store with more apps for the Windows 10 operating system across desktop and mobile. Acquiring Xamarin is a smart move. While Xamarin focuses on mobile apps, with Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform (UWP), an app can be made to work across any Windows 10 device.
[Via ScottGu’s Microsoft Blog]
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