News

More No-Coding-Required Mobile Dev Tools Arrive

• By David Ramel
• February 6, 2015

Mobile dev tools keep emerging to solve that pesky "coding is hard" problem.

This week's offerings come from vendors that are big (Kony Inc.) and small (Appy Pie Inc.), exemplifying different approaches to the do-it-yourself movement that's addressing the exploding mobility phenomenon and continuing lack of skilled developers.

Kony made available its Kony Modeler, "the first visual, composition toolset for business users to assemble and configure mobile-first apps from reusable, lightweight app models available in Kony's app marketplace."

Appy Pie added a Video Social Networking API to its portfolio of "mobile application development software that allows anyone with no technical knowledge to create advanced applications for mobiles and smartphones."

The Kony Modeler is but one part of the company's cloud-based mobile dev platform, which includes MobileFabric back-end services and its app marketplace, which is an online exchange where business users can leverage pre-built app models from Kony or its partners for specific use cases.

The modeler will help business users customize such apps for their own needs and deploy code changes to iOS or Android devices, helped by the MobileFabric that powers the model-based apps, providing configuration, customization, deployment, automatic upgrading and versioning services.

Kony also announced its own Sales app built atop the company's platform with the modeler. It's an extension for SAP and Salesforce.com software, streamlining common sales tasks like managing tasks, following up with customers, and handling leads and accounts.

"Industry experts are predicting that the demand for mobile apps will dramatically increase for enterprise organizations in the next few years," Kony exec Burley Kawasaki said. "To meet this demand, enterprises are looking for ways to empower their businesses to rapidly deliver secure, enterprise-level mobile apps with great user experiences. Our goal is to provide a rich collection of pre-built apps and app models through the Kony Marketplace, which they can use to quickly build their mobile apps."

Meanwhile, the new Appy Pie offering more specifically targets social video apps. The Video Social Networking API allows "developers to create full-blown, video-sharing, social networking apps," the company said. It hosts the video clips and "creates a social network around the mobile videos, allowing users to maintain profiles and follow other users, as well as watch each other's clips on the go."

Users can shoot videos up to 30 seconds in length with smartphones, apply special effects or filters and share them on their own "wall" or on social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

"Millions of connected smartphone cameras that now have the bandwidth to seamlessly share video is unprecedented and inspiring," said company founder Abhinav Girdhar. "Video Social Networking API was created to empower expression and engagement through user-generated videos and images."

And, as the company says in its "About" description: "There is nothing to download or install, no programming required -- just drag and drop."