Red Foundry: Is this App development for the rest of us?

Apps sales are exploding while the distinction between mobile and desktop Apps will shrink when Apple gives Lion a healthy iOS habit. Developers are on a gravy train, even teenagers are making cash using skills many don't have time to learn. "If only getting started in App development were as simple as making a Wordpress Website," some might cry. Cry no more. Red Foundry promises to make it so.

The Red Foundry Mobile App Platform is a suite of free online tools which should enable anyone with a good idea to build an iOS app -- a system which also includes tools to help make it profitable. (You do pay a fee when you submit an App to Apple, after which it should cost about the same as hosting a website). Current customers include HFMUS, Kodak, and Ogilvy. I spoke with company founder, Jim Heising.

Announced later today, the software -- which has been in beta testing for months -- aims to enable anyone, regardless of technical skills, to create native mobile apps in minutes, right from their Web browser.

Company founder Heising stresses that his solution lets you build powerful Apps which appear unique. Other solutions for iOS App design seem to generate solutions which look as if they've come from the same "cookie-cutter", he claims.

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So, what's inside Red Foundry Mobile App Platform?

Some features:

• Build new and custom layouts and functionality using Red Foundry's  own mark-up language, which is similar to HTML.
• The capacity to connect to social networking content and API's, including those from Facebook, Twitter, and Wordpress, but also private or custom APIs for unique Apps.
• Free WYSIWYG simulator App for testing
• Intelligent analytics
• Push notifications,
• User-generated content,
• Social networking and media capabilities
• Online learning tools for first time developers

-- What motivated the firm to produce this new solution?

Heising explains, "We made Red Foundry because we built a number of successful iPhone Apps for ourselves and other people, and found that the cost, risk and time associated with making an App made it inaccessible to all but a privileged few.

"Remember when websites used to cost tens of thousands of dollars to build? We took cues from modern Web content management systems like Wordpress, Drupal, and Joomla and knew that mobile development could and should go the same direction, and Red Foundry was born in that spirit."

The new gold rush

Of course, this isn't just about Apple's mobile operating system, Red Foundry will introduce a similar solution for Android later this year, and will support other platforms if there's enough demand.

This is the new gold rush -- worldwide mobile application store revenue will almost triple to $15.1 billion this year, Gartner said this morning. Red Foundry hopes its tools mean less technical users may strike it lucky with an App idea, too, sharing in the billions on the table.

Unlocking the potential

With well over 100 million existing iOS users and the installed base set to double this year, there's enormous potential to this market. As the divide between desktop and mobile software erodes with Apple's future OS, Mac OS X "Lion", Heising says, "I believe the mobile app market will be the market as more and more people use their mobile devices in their daily lives."

More powerful desktop software solutions will exist, but, as Apple's CEO Steve Jobs said of the PC industry ("PCs will be like trucks") the market for desktop applications will be, "relegated to a niche market for professionals seeking highly specific features," says Heising.

This is quite interesting. After all, it was only this week that Pixelmator confirmed it has earned $1 million in just 20-days following that apps' introduction on the Mac App Store.
 
Apple v Google

On the battle between Android and iOS, Heising thinks the move to offer the iPhone via Verizon as well as through AT&T will stem the Google smartphone platform's fast growth. "When the Verizon iPhone comes out, I have a feeling we may start to see some wild swings back in Apple’s direction," Heising explains, conceding that Google has done a good job in developing Android to become a must-have platform to support.

Heising had some interesting things to say on the differences between the different smartphone platforms, praising Windows 7 Phone and webOS as being "slick", he notes Android's need to move further to offer a "polished' user experience.
 
"The longer I work in this industry I'm starting to realize that the reason why iOS dominates the way it does is not because it's a better OS necessarily, but because of the whole experience you get from Apple," he says.

The whole widget

"From walking in an Apple store, to the box, to the white earphones, to the tightly controlled experience in the OS. We can all balk at Apple's closed system (trust me I've complained as much as anyone), but at the end of the day I guess subconsciously I like feeling safe and familiar. Maybe I'm just getting old," he concludes.

What do you think? Are you a developer who maybe thinks solutions like these suck? Or do you welcome a new democracy for App design? Perhaps you've found limitations in these tools? Tell us in comments below, as I'm keen to learn your thoughts. And, once again, I'd be honored if you chose to follow me on Twitter so I can let you know when these items are published here first on Computerworld.