The other day I was made aware of a relatively new player in the mobile development ecosystem. A company called Everypoint has a Java-based tool set called Nemo that lets developer write mobile apps across a variety of devices in Java (including iPhone). Responses by Allan MacKinnon, President, Founder and CTO, Everypoint.
Q: Tell me about Everypoint.
Everypoint was founded with the goal of redefining mobile application development by creating a simple way for developers to create, distribute and manage rich, networked-enabled applications to Internet-ready mobile phones.
Over last three years, Everypoint has developed Nemo, a mobile application development platform, that lets developers graphically rich, always on applications to inexpensive feature phones. Nemo is a powerful and general-purpose solution that is suitable for developing mobile applications ranging from casual games to real-time social networking experiences. Some example applications can be seen here: http://nemo.everypoint.com/wiki/Live .
Q: I’ve heard a little bit about your new mobile development framework called Nemo. Why should developers be interested in this?
Everypoint’s Nemo platform is the industry’s first mobile application development ecosystem to create, distribute and manage iPhone-quality applications for the over 1+ billion Internet-ready phones in use across the globe today, effectively increasing market potential by at least 100x. Nemo empowers developers to create applications that have the power to transform the mobile consumer experience by dramatically improving the interactivity and graphical quality of new applications that run on existing Java-enabled mobile phones.
Nemo’s vector graphics engine and push-sync database enable development of powerful applications that can run on today’s feature phones. Nemo’s scripting language and development tools encourage developers to test their code immediately, facilitating iterative user experience refinement and rapid application development. This allows developers to write code interactively, making development more efficient and productive. Once applications are completed, Everypoint’s infrastructure automatically distributes them into the application catalog. For more developer benefits, visit: http://nemo.everypoint.com/wiki/NemoFeatures .
Q: How does Nemo fit together with Nemo Cloud Services and RepliSync
Everypoint’s Nemo Cloud Services support a built-for-mobile programming model providing real-time push notification and synchronization of content to mobile devices, the ability to manage the access rights and distribution of applications and detailed analytics. The same services used to synchronize content are also used to guarantee that applications are always up-to-date.
The Nemo runtime contains an embedded version of the RepliSync database and the Nemo programming language provides direct access to the Nemo Cloud Services.
Q: What does it cost to write a Nemo-powered app? In other words the inevitable question is how does Everypoint make money from this?
The Nemo Developer Environment and Nemo Mobile Runtime are both free to developers. Nemo supports both paid applications and advertising supported applications; it’s up to the developer to decide what model they use. Developers can set their own prices for their apps – free apps are not charged fees by Everypoint, except when very generous resource thresholds are exceeded. If a developer chooses to restrict the delivery of the application, the developer must enter into agreement with Everypoint where, during the Preview Beta, we will charge 10% of the sale price or 10 cents (whichever is higher) for each application.
Q: How does Nemo compare to other mobile frameworks like J2ME or even PhoneGap? Are these fair comparisons?
First of all, Nemo is not a “framework”, rather it’s a complete development environment, programming language and tools with both client-side and server-side support infrastructure. The Nemo platform is suitable for general-purpose application development. Unlike other mobile solutions, the Nemo platform targets feature phones and above. This means Nemo applications can reach a much larger audience. Nemo brings an entirely new set of features to these mass market devices.
Frameworks like PhoneGap will only let you go so far. If your app can be presented in HTML and you need to bring it to several smartphones platforms, then it makes sense to use. But developers who want to develop more complex applications will continue to program in either Objective-C (iPhone), Java (Android), C++ (Symbian) , ActionScript (Flash in the browser) or Nemo (J2ME mass market devices).
Q: Anything else you’d like developers to know?
With Nemo, for the first time, developers can create “rich” interactive always-on applications for Java ME devices. Nemo gives developers a rich presentation layer, infrastructure for pushing and syncing content in real time and an interactive scripting language that lets them try code out and break free of the “edit, compile, test and debug” loop of traditional mobile development.
Because Nemo is interactive, a developer can ease into development and try the language out from the command line. The developer can draw anti-aliased text and graphics to the screen as well as create new definitions and test them immediately. We’ve found this immediate feedback invaluable and conducive to rapid development of applications.
Finally, it’s worth noting that Nemo is written in itself. The entire language, interpreter and compiler are written in Nemo. We found this to be a great way to “bring up” a new language as well as prioritize features during early stages of the language’s development.
Q: Nemo is in beta right now, where do I go to check it out?
Nemo is available for preview beta via registration at nemo.everypoint.com. You can view demos of our apps at http://nemo.everypoint.com/wiki/Live
