Cross-Platform giant Xamarin acquires RoboVM

• October 28th, 2015
• Russell Noble
• 1 comment

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RoboVM has announced that they have been acquired by Xamarin, the company behind Mono and MonoTouch for Android.

California-based Xamarin, who create cross-platform methods for mobile devices, will provide a huge platform for RoboVM, who create mobile Java apps for iOS.

In a statement by RoboVM, they said “We’re proud to tell you that RoboVM has been acquired, and we’re now part of the Xamarin family! This is very exciting for all of us, not only those of us here on the RoboVM team, but also for you as RoboVM customers and developers.”

RoboVM created a platform in which iOS and Android application developers could share application code between devices, making it easier for devs to create applications for both platforms. With their new parent company, Xamarin, this gives RoboVM a larger userbase to spread out to.

A world-class, innovative company, RoboVM has stayed with the times, including same day support when iOS 9 was released.

Previously, Xamarin created shared cross platforms with C#, while RoboVM used Java. The move by Xamarin ensures that with RoboVM under it’s products, that it is the only company to create cross platform applications in the coding languages C# and Java.

The acquisition of Java into the Xamarin developer platform means that it can now access the five to seven million developers who use Java, and makes it the undisputed king of cross-platform mobile application developers.

Shuttershock

For developers, this means that instead of having to deal with and switch between Xamarin and RoboVM platforms, that Xamarin will soon release a product which allows application developers will now have access to a platform which allows C# and Java coding which is compatible with iOS, Android, Windows and Mac.

In a press release by Xamarin, Nat Friedman, the CEO and cofounder of Xamarin said, “If Xamarin were to build a Java solution from scratch, it would look like RoboVM because they took the same native-first approach in their design.  If you love Java, you are going to love RoboVM for iOS and Android development.”

Products such as Xamarin Test Cloud allows customers to plug their application in and test it over 2000 different devices, with results and feedback returned in minutes. If a developer were to do this manually, it would take them weeks, without including the time doing through individual crash and user reports.

With developer numbers doubling over the last year to 1.2 million, the acquisition will prove to be a game changer in the cross-platform developing industry.