Appcelerator Brings Web Applications to the Desktop with Titanium

Open source platform advances ease of use, functionality, and innovation for application development

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ — Appcelerator, Inc., a leading provider of open source technologies for building and managing rich Web applications, today announced the public preview release of Appcelerator Titanium(TM), an open source platform for building desktop and mobile applications using a common set of Web technologies.

Titanium allows developers to use standard Web technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript to quickly and easily develop applications that can be deployed to multiple platforms, including the desktop, the browser or the mobile device. Unlike traditional Web applications, which are limited to operating within the browser, Titanium desktop applications are able to read and write local data on the desktop and interact with the operating system. In particular, Titanium enables developers to build desktop Web applications that can operate both online and offline.

“Developing for the desktop had shifted down in priority in recent years. But desktop development has recently picked up more interest as rich Internet application technologies have pulled down the web development experience to the desktop,” said Michael Cote, an industry analyst with RedMonk. “Increasingly, developers have the option to use known web frameworks to expand into a previously unreachable area, the desktop.”

Titanium is part of the growing group of open source communities that are working together to bring Web applications to the desktop. Titanium is built on top of a number of leading open source technologies including WebKit, Gears and Chromium. Titanium is designed to work on Windows, Mac, and Linux desktop operating systems. The Windows and Mac version of Titanium are available immediately and the Linux version will be available in January 2009. Titanium is distributed under the Apache Public License.

“Web applications have exploded because they are easy to build and distribute, but until now they have lacked the full feature set of native desktop applications,” said Jeff Haynie, CEO of Appcelerator. “Titanium enables a whole new generation of applications that use standard Web technologies to build rich desktop and mobile applications, which will ultimately push the boundaries of innovation. By providing an open source alternative, Titanium offers a solution for those who prefer open source for strategic reasons or want to extend the functionality of the Titanium platform to meet unique requirements.”

Key features include:

• Rapid development of production-level web and desktop applications:
  • Native windowing,
  • Direct file system access,
  • Database integration,
  • Local database storage,
  • Desktop notifications,
  • Application and system menu control,
  • Geo-location, among others;
• Rapid packaging of native applications that result in easy Windows and Mac

OS X installs;

• Ability to integrate web applications into the desktop environment with desktop technologies, including offline use and direct file system access;
• Proof of concept applications with full source code available, including a Twitter client and a contact manager. To download these use cases, please visit: http://titaniumapp.com/demos.

A preview release of Titanium is freely available today for download: http://titaniumapp.com/download.

More information is available at:

• Titanium Homepage: http://titaniumapp.com
• FAQ: http://titaniumapp.com/faq
• Download/Source code: http://titaniumapp.com/download
• Product vision video and demo video: http://titaniumapp.com/screencasts
• Titanium Blog: http://community.appcelerator.org/groups/titanium
• Appcelerator Blog: http://www.appcelerant.com
• Titanium Twitter: http://twitter.com/titanium_app
• Appcelerator Twitter: http://twitter.com/appcelerator

About Appcelerator

Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Appcelerator, Inc., develops and supports the leading Open Web platform for creating, packaging and deploying rich Web applications. Financially backed by leading Silicon Valley investor Storm Ventures and open source luminary Larry Augustin, Appcelerator’s products allow developers to quickly and easily build applications using standard Web technologies that can be deployed to multiple platforms, including the desktop, the browser or the mobile device. For more information, please visit: http://appcelerator.org/.

    Contact
    Page One PR for Appcelerator
    Shelly Milam
    shelly@pageonepr.com
    Phone: 415.875.7491

SOURCE Appcelerator, Inc.