| Developer(s) | Appcelerator, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 1.7.5 / November 2, 2011 |
| Operating system | iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Mac OS, Windows, Linux |
| Type | Application framework |
| License | Apache Public License v2, Proprietary software |
| Website | http://www.appcelerator.com |
Appcelerator Titanium is a platform for developing mobile, tablet and desktop applications using web technologies. Appcelerator Titanium is developed by Appcelerator Inc. and was introduced in December 2008.[1] Support for developing iPhone- and Android-based mobile applications was added in June 2009.[2] Support for developing iPad-based tablet apps was added in April 2010.[3] BlackBerry support was announced on June 2010[4] but it is still in closed beta.
Appcelerator Titanium Mobile is one of several phone web based application framework solutions allowing web developers to apply existing skills to create native applications for iPhone and Android. Yet, while using the familiar JavaScript syntax, developers will also have to learn the extensive Titanium API, which is quite different from familiar web frameworks such as jQuery. Still, it is simpler to learn a new API than to learn a new language (Objective C or Java) and several new APIs.
Appcelerator Titanium is sometimes compared to Adobe Air for developing desktop applications for Windows, Mac and also Linux [5]
All application source code gets deployed to the mobile device where it is interpreted (the company's marketing refers to this as being a "cross-compiler").[6] This means that during development any errors in the source code do not occur until run-time. At run time, the loading performance is lower, as the last step (i.e. interpreting the source code on the device) needs to be done every time the application runs.
Developers report that although working with Titanium gives fast results, making Titanium well suited for prototyping, there are issues around differences in behaviour of the API cross-platform, stability and memory management, however, that makes some developers re-write their apps in native code in the end. [7] [8]
In June 2011, Appcelerator released Titanium Studio and Titanium Mobile 1.7. [9] Titanium Studio is a full open standards IDE that is derived from Aptana Studio which Appcelerator acquired in January 2011. In April 2010 Appcelerator expanded the Titanium product line with the Titanium Tablet SDK.[3] The Titanium Tablet SDK draws heavily from the existing support for iPhone but also includes native support for iPad-only user interface controls such as split views and popovers. Initially the Tablet SDK supports only Apple's iPad.
Appcelerator, Inc. also offers cloud-based services for packaging, testing and distributing software applications developed on the Titanium platform.[10] The company expanded its product line in January 2011 by acquiring Aptana, Inc, a developer of open source tools for building web applications. [11]
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The core features of Appcelerator Titanium include: