It’s Alcatel-Lucent‘s second acquisition in 3 months and without a doubt, the company is trying to flex a little muscle in the mobile applications space. The company bought ProgrammableWeb, a well-known respository for web API’s back in June and has just announced the acquisition of OpenPlug for cross-platform mobile app development.
With the acquisition of France-based OpenPlug, Alcatel-Lucent will provide tools enabling developers to develop and easily deploy mobile apps across multiple platforms. OpenPlug’s solutions allow developers to write apps once and then convert them into native software, compatible with various mobile operating systems – including iOs, Android, Symbian, Windows Phone and Linux.
Apparently, OpenPlug’s software can reduce go to market time by as much as 80 percent, according to a statement made in the press release by Alcatel-Lucent’s VP of global developer strategy, Laura Merling. Applications previously only available on sophisticated smartphones will now be available on any mobile device. In addition, the technology can be extended to other areas of application development: IPTV, game consoles, etc.
As with ProgrammableWeb, the terms of the transaction have not yet been disclosed.