Motorola Offers HTML5 Tool For Windows Devices

Motorola Solutions has announced a new developer framework for creating HTML5 applications for Windows Embedded Handheld and Windows CE devices.

Motorola Solutions’ RhoElements is a web-based application framework designed to allow businesses to quickly and cost-effectively develop and deploy web-based applications on existing Motorola Windows Embedded Handheld (formerly known as Windows Mobile) and Windows Embedded Compact (Win-CE) mobile computers as well as Motorola’s recently announced ET1 Android-based enterprise tablet.

Seamless support

Motorola RhoElements is the first of several product releases targeted at developers within Motorola’s customer base and PartnerEmpower ecosystem. Leveraging Motorola’s PocketBrowser product, a framework for web-based line-of-business applications, RhoElements provides a new way to develop applications on existing Windows-based industrial mobile computers and offers a bridge for seamless application support on future mobile computing devices and operating systems.

“Motorola’s PartnerEmpower channel partners and customers are increasingly challenged by the need to develop, maintain and manage enterprise applications with compelling user experiences across multiple operating system and device platforms,” said Suhas Uliyar, chief solutions architect for mobile computing at Motorola Solutions.

“With the introduction of RhoElements, the acquisition of Rhomobile and our overall developer tools strategy, Motorola Solutions is helping to position the enterprise mobile computing industry for the future by reducing the impact of operating system disruption and easing the pain of migration from legacy solutions to the next generation of devices and applications in the market.”

Motorola acquired Rhomobile on 29 July, 2011, and the company expects to announce additional cross-platform application development tools, enterprise integration components and cloud-based services for channel partners and customers leveraging Rhomobile’s product suite in the coming months, company officials said.

High-performance web applications

RhoElements provides a modern HTML5, advanced JavaScript and CSS application framework for high-performance web-based applications, enabling users to transition from terminal emulation solutions or legacy browser-based applications to more powerful and user-friendly web-based applications. It also enables developers to offer enterprise users applications with a consumer-style look and feel with consistency across device type, screen size and operating system, the company said.

“Stratix views the use of HTML5 as the next generation for providing truly cross-platform mobile applications,” said Chris Koterski, vice president of mobile solutions at Stratix, in a statement. “Today our award-winning Stratix Mobile Applications deliver modern consumer-style user interfaces, leveraging the latest in HTML5 technologies for iOS and Android-based smartphones and tablets.

“We are excited to see that Motorola Solutions is truly showing market leadership by delivering the industry’s first HTML5-based Webkit engine to Windows Mobile and Windows CE for its enterprise class devices, which not only enable rich user interfaces but also integrate with critical device-level capabilities that are core to our business,” he said.

With support for HTML5 features such as application caching and web storage, developers can optimise network utilisation and enable continuous operation when users temporarily lose connectivity.

Device-level APIs

RhoElements exposes web developers to device-level application programming interfaces (APIs) to take advantage of the enterprise-rich features found in Motorola enterprise mobile computers. The first version of RhoElements will provide support for the Motorola enterprise tablet (ET1) running the Android operating system and Motorola mobile devices running Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5, Windows Embedded CE 5 and 6, and Windows Embedded Compact 7. RhoElements 1.0 is available for download.

“One of the major challenges independent software vendors [ISVs] face developing mobile applications today is identifying the right tools to develop an application once and deploy on many platforms,” said Steve Reynolds, chief executive of TBS Enterprise Mobility, in a statement.

“With RhoElements, ISVs are finally empowered to create rich, sophisticated and visually pleasing enterprise-class applications that can now access the full potential of the device, such as the camera and barcode readers, which can then be deployed on to multiple mobile operating systems.”