Developer Tech

Enterprise cloud computing giants Salesforce.com has launched Salesforce Platform Mobile Services, a tool to help accelerate mobile app development for customers and partners on the Salesforce cloud platform. The platform, which runs Salesforce CRM and, according to the company, is home to over three million custom apps and a million developers, is of course the cornerstone of one of tech’s giants.

Latest research from Micro Focus has revealed that nearly three quarters of academic institutions don’t support COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) in its courses. COBOL isn’t the most fashionable programming language, of course, but it’s certainly one of the oldest, with widespread use continuing in enterprise, government and military arenas.

Twitter Cards, a feature of the micro blogging site which allows tweets to be expanded, has rolled out an extension of its service to include apps, products and photo galleries.

Android accounts for 86% of all new smartphones in China, with the Asian country having three times as many Droid users as the US. These were the key takeaways from new research by Chinese startup Wandoujia, with the highlights being published in an infographic.

App security provider SafeApp Mobility has launched the SafeApp Certificate, a tool for Android developers to show to users that their app is safe to download. The certificate, which is available for Android apps of all size, from big companies to indie devs, performs similarly to a SSL Certificate, and in the long run is aimed at improving app retention and conversion from the developer’s standpoint.

There’s change afoot in the tablet market, according to the International Data Corporation. Android-powered tablets, currently shipping in greater numbers than its iOS counterparts, will surge further ahead by 2017. Similarly, the overall number of tablets shipped will increase: IDC has moved up its prediction for the global market from 172.4m units to 190.9m by the year’s end.

VP product at Mozilla Jay Sullivan, speaking at SXSW, has stated that the Firefox browser will not appear on any Apple devices if the Cupertino company continues to be unfriendly to third party browsers.

Analytics firm Flurry has released its latest report on device proliferation, which shows a steep upward curve in terms of the number of device models a dev needs to support if you want your app to be fully optimised. The research, as seen in the graph below, found that if you want your app to cover 80% of total active devices, you need it to be compatible with 156 different models.