Application Craft, Brightcove take on Adobe in the Cloud

Two new Mobile Application Development Platform providers, Brightcove and Application Craft are now offering cloud-based, cross-platform application development tools designed to compete with and replace Adobe’s PhoneGap Build.

According to PC World, Brightcove has introduced integrated native plug-in architecture for its App Cloud solution, as well as a set of new push notification APIs. The announcement was made on November 15, and the features will allow the construction of apps that more easily integrate with device features such as cameras and GPS. Brightcove is also building partner plug-ins like one for Google Analytics.

Application Craft, a UK-based company that exited beta in September, now offers Mobile Build, a cloud-based solution that allows users to convert HTML5-based apps so that they can run natively on iOS, Android and Windows Phone with a single click, according to a company statement. This was also announced the morning of November 15, although there is a post on Application Craft’s blog, Gettin’ Crafty, dated November 13 that announces the introduction of AC Mobile Build.

Both solutions and their updates are designed to take advantage of perceived shortcomings of Adobe’s PhoneGap Build. While Application Craft had previously integrated with PhoneGap Build, Freddy May, founder and CEO at Application Craft said that Adobe “has been horrendously slow” in supporting plug-ins on Build. This pushed May’s company to build its own solution. PCWorld adds that “the company also didn’t want to be dependent on Adobe for an important part of their offerings.”

Brightcove’s founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire expressed his disappointment with Adobe’s perceived lack of innovation with the framework and associated services that make up PhoneGap Build, which Adobe purchased in October of 2011.

To read more from PCWorld’s article on this subject, click here.