2016 Mobility 100: 15 Coolest Mobile App Development Platforms

15 Coolest Mobile App Development Platforms

Solution providers know that mobile application development is more important to enterprise businesses than ever before as they need industry-specific, customized apps to help their sales force.

A good mobile application development platform ties in company needs with specific customizable features, like notification and analysis capabilities. On the developers' end, the platform allows them to build native or hybrid apps and deploy them across multiple platforms and devices.

Following are the 15 coolest mobile application development platforms, from Amazon Web Services' Mobile Hub to IBM's MobileFirst platform.

Adobe Systems

Shantanu Narayen, CEO

Headquarters: San Jose, Calif.

Adobe's Flash Builder 4.7 enables users to easily build mobile applications using the same process as Web or desktop applications. With this system, mobile software developers can build packaged business-to-business and business-to-consumer mobile applications for iOS devices such as iPhones or iPads.

Amazon

Jeff Bezos, CEO

Headquarters: Seattle

Amazon Web Services' Mobile Hub enables businesses to add and configure features for mobile apps. This platform features user authentication, data storage, back-end logic, push notifications and analytics capabilities.

Appcelerator

Jeff Haynie, CEO

Headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.

On Appcelerator's platform, developers can build on Javascript and run native apps on any device and operating system. The Appcelerator platform also allows users to verify apps with full mobile test automation, get mobile-optimized access to any data source, and see the usage and adoption of apps. The platform also offers visibility to detect crashes and tune performance for apps.

Appery.io

John Derrick, CEO

Headquarters: Walnut Creek, Calif.

Appery contains a cloud-based, rapid development environment for building mobile and responsive apps across iOS and Android platforms. Developers can create hybrid apps that behave like native but use common APIs. With Appery's platform, developers can also build responsive Web apps.

ClickSoftware

Tom Heiser, CEO

Headquarters: Burlington, Mass.

ClickSoftware's Mobility Studio allows developers to build and manage apps, as well as roll out new functionality to mobile users. Beyond app development, the studio also has an array of other features, including access to a library of mobile ClickApps letting users build their own mobile solutions portfolio.

Embarcadero

Randy Jacops, CEO

Headquarters: San Francisco

Embarcadero's RAD Studio 10 Seattle is a quick and easy way to build and update data-rich applications for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 10, Mac OS X, iOS and Android mobile devices, and Internet of Things, according to the company. Developers can utilize the platform to build apps using Object Pascal and C++.

IBM

Ginni Rometty, CEO

Headquarters: Armonk, N.Y.

IBM's MobileFirst platform enables users to build, enhance and rapidly deliver native or hybrid apps. With the MobileFirst platform, IT and security professionals can manage their smartphones, tablets, app content and infrastructure, as well as build or buy manageable and secure mobile apps.

Kony

Thomas Hogan, CEO

Headquarters: Austin, Texas

Kony's mobility platform is an open, standards-based integrated platform for app development. Systems integrator partners and strategic consultants can take advantage of Kony's platform, which supports application software development life cycles and empowers enterprises to quickly design, build, deploy and manage multi-edge app experiences.

MicroStrategy

Michael Saylor, CEO

Headquarters: Tysons Corner, Va.

With MicroStrategy's platform, developers can build custom mobile productivity apps that incorporate powerful analytics tailored to any business need, as well as stay more connected with access to mobile, touch-optimized reports and dashboards for enhanced business information.

MobileSmith

Amir Elbaz, CEO and Chairman

Headquarters: Raleigh, N.C.

MobileSmith is an enterprise-class, flexible mobile app development platform. This white-label app solution enables organizations to rapidly create, deploy and manage custom, native apps for iPhone, iPad and Android smartphones without writing a line of code.

Oracle

Mark Hurd and Safra Catz, Co-CEOs

Headquarters: Redwood City, Calif.

Through Oracle's Mobile Application Framework, developers can rapidly create single-source applications to deploy them to Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms. The hybrid mobile framework leverages Java, HTML5 and Javascript to deliver user interface definition, integrated device features and built-in security.

Pegasystems

Alan Trefler, CEO

Headquarters: Cambridge, Mass.

Pega Mobility provides simple tools for building new mobile apps and packaging them as hybrid apps running on Android or iOS. The Pega Hybrid Dynamic Client provides security and management for enterprise apps while delivering native device capabilities for users.

SAP

Bill McDermott, CEO

Headquarters: Walldorf, Germany

SAP's mobile platform enables mobile app development and deployment services. Using the SAP Mobile Platform, enterprises can simplify cross-platform mobile app development and rapidly deliver secure, highly scalable consumer and business apps on iOS, Android, and Windows devices. Users can deploy apps on-premise or with SAP HANA Cloud Platform Mobile services.

Sencha

Art Landro, CEO

Headquarters: Redwood City, Calif.

Sencha's application framework, Sencha Touch, is a cross-platform mobile framework based on HTML5 and Javascript for creating universal mobile apps. Sencha Touch gives customers freedom to design a variety of mobile interfaces across any operating system or device, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and more.

Telerik, a Progress company

Svetozar Georgiev, Senior Vice President of Application Platforms, Progress

Headquarters: Sofia, Bulgaria

The Telerik platform is a complete cross-platform solution to design, build, deploy manage and measure apps. On this app, developers can visually construct their mobile app from a library of user interfaces, then export it to Javascript and easily publish it to iOS, Android, or Windows Phone.