Last month, we told you about Iceberg, an application that allows anyone to be a developer by simplifying programming into a process that can be done via easy-to-use DIY tools. More recently, another company called Cascada Mobile launched a platform that does the same for the mobile world. With their new platform, Cascada Breeze, anyone can program mobile apps. This makes us wonder – is democratizing programming the next big trend for the future of the web?
Building A Mobile App
With Cascada Mobile’s platform called Breeze, anyone can take their idea from thought to app in about fifteen minutes. Well, maybe not anyone – the apps are built using HTML, so you would have to have some rudimentary web programming knowledge to use their platform. Still, you have to admit, that’s a lot easier than using a professional development platform.
With Breeze, you can build, test, and distribute mobile J2ME apps that run on hundreds and handsets. And these are “real” apps, too – fully integrated mobile applications with their own icon, not just mobile widgets.
The “Breeze Simulator” lets the novice developers test their app for hundreds of different handsets – a usually daunting task in the world of mobile web programming where apps that work on one model don’t work on another, even if they’re similar in design or from the same manufacturer.
Check out this video that shows Breeze in action:
Cascada Mobile Breeze from Cascada Mobile on Vimeo.
In addition, Breeze developers will receive a line of code they can put on their web sites, blogs, or social network profiles that let their visitors download the app by entering their mobile number. Breeze takes care of the distribution via SMS, WAP Push, and direct download. To subsidize the cost of distribution, the apps are ad-enabled. However, developers wanting to go ad-free can pay for the use of Breeze in order to do so.
Should Programming Be Left To the Professionals?
So, now we have an application that lets everyone program web apps (Iceberg) and a platform for building mobile J2ME apps, what’s next? If this trend is to continue, the next big move would be to let novice developers build their own iPhone applications, you would think. But the real question is do we actually want amateurs building apps for our mobile devices? Or would you rather that was left to professionals?
You can try some Breeze applications for yourself from here.(Ooh, mobile Twitter!)
