Updated
More than a year after Appcelerator first released an open source platform for developing desktop and smartphone applications, the Mountain View, Calif. startup is finally unveiling Titanium 1.0, the first version that's ready for general availability.
Previously, Titanium's big selling point was that it let developers build applications that could run across devices using the same languages they used for web apps -- HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. But for some, that wasn't enough, said Scott Schwarzhoff, Appcelerator's vice president for marketing. Sure, it's easier to build a Titanium app that runs on desktops, iPhones, and Android-based smartphones than to build separate apps for each platform, but many developers said it was a dealbreaker if those apps didn't perform as well as the competition.
For version 1.0, Schwarzhoff said Appcelerator has completely revamped Titanium to improve performance and better take advantage of each device's native capabilities. According to the company, app processing speed has improved five-fold, and app load times have fallen below three seconds, from 10 to 20 seconds in previous versions. Titanium also allows developers to access 100 native device controls.
As for pricing, the company is introducing two different tiers: Titanium Community, which is free but runs ads from Appcelerator, and Titanium Professional, which costs $499 per month and includes premium support, six months of analytics, and early access to new platforms. [Update: An initial version of this story incorrectly identified three pricing levels, not two.]
The last time I covered Appcelerator, the company reported that it was also seeing strong interest in building apps for Apple's iPad from its developer community. Schwarzhoff said that with version 1.0 out the door, the company can now focus on adding support for that device, a process he said should take "less than a week."
Titanium continues to compete with Adobe's AIR platform, which was first built as a tool for creating desktop apps but which is supposed to bring apps to a number of smartphones and tablet devices too. On the iPhone, Schwarzhoff said a Titanium 1.0 app looks like any other iPhone app, while an app created on Adobe's platform looks just like "a Flash widget." On tablets, he's a little less sure how AIR stacks up, since he hasn't seen any apps in action.
"I am really anxious to fire up one of their applications and see what the responsiveness is," he said.
Appcelerator has raised $4.1 million from Storm Ventures and Larry Augustin.