Adobe just made a big splash in the mobile development world today by announcing that it has acquired Nitobi, the maker of the popular PhoneGap framework. Nitobi confirmed the acquisition and added that part of the acquisition was that Nitobi continue with its application to place the PhoneGap source code in the Apache Software Foundation.
PhoneGap is a “wrapper” that developers use to turn Web applications built through HTML5 and Javascript into native applications for mobile platforms such as iOS and Android. Terms of the acquisition were not announced. Essentially what Adobe has done is to distance itself from the problems it has created with Flash on mobile and align itself with the hottest mobile developers in the ecosystem.
PhoneGap itself will continue to be open source. PhoneGap Build, which includes proprietary code, will be how Adobe monetizes the Nitobi acquisition. Yet, let’s get one thing straight here – this is about talent as much as it is about code.
Adobe has been left out in the cold ever since Apple decided that it would not support Flash for iOS. Android finally got on board the Flash wagon with version 2.2 Frozen Yogurt but the fact of the matter is that Flash does not run well on mobile devices anywhere.
In a press release, Adobe said that it work to make contributions to the HTML5 community and work with open source projects like WebKit and JQuery. Adobe will take a big step in game development across platforms with PhoneGap at its back and will finally have a firm way into to the native application ecosystem that it has been mostly shut out of the last couple of years.
Once the acquisition closes at the end of October and PhoneGap furthers its application with the Apache Software Foundation, PhoneGap will likely cease to exist as a brand. It will then become Apache branded, with “Apache DeviceReady” the early name being kicked around.
Is this good news? Both Nitobi and Adobe are excited and the fact that PhoneGap will remain open source through Apache means that most developers will hardly see a change. If you are a PhoneGap Build customer, you are going to be sending your check to Adobe now instead of Nitobi. Let us know you thoughts in the comments.
