“The mobile market has exploded,” says Ian Thain, developer evangelist at SAP. At the moosecon developer conference, Thain demonstrated how freelancers can use SAP tools quickly and free of charge to program their own apps for companies. It’s a perfect opportunity to get on board!
While countless individuals and small start-ups are turning to consumer apps for success these days, mobile apps have long since become a staple feature in larger companies, translating into enormous potential for developers. Yet the “ground rules” are different here.
“Only one-fifth of the programming codes in mobile business solutions comes from the actual app. The rest stems from infrastructure and platform services,” says Thain. These services take care of things like integration with the back end, data synchronization, security mechanisms, and much more. Developing services like this take a lot of time – time that developers could, in fact, save. “The SAP Mobile Platform contains preconfigured logic that deals with these standard tasks, allowing apps to be developed much more quickly and for all important platforms,”notes Thain. An Eclipse-based development environment makes the developers’ start easier here, because the apps can be programmed in the native language of the target device as well as in the highly compatible HTML5.
Programmers can learn all they need to know quickly in the SAP Developer Program, where they can share information in Communities or sign up for events like InnoJam. In addition, SAP hosts a free, 30-day trial version of Software Development Kit (SDK), which serves as the perfect playground for trying out developments in a business environment. Those who like what they see there can then upgrade to the free developer license, which allows programmers to use SDK locally and develop live apps in the Amazon cloud. Developers can then sell their apps in the SAP Store – those who need help with marketing their apps can contact the Developer Partner Program.
So let’s go! The world of mobile business apps is waiting!
www.sapmobileappspartnercenter.com
