Motorola Solutions Acquires Rhomobile, Releases RhoElements HTML5 Web-Based Mobile App Framework

Motorola Solutions, a provider of enterprise communication products, software, and services, announced its acquisition of Rhomobile, a provider of mobile application development and deployment tools, and the release of RhoElements, a framework for developing web and mobile HTML5 applications.

All Rhomobile products will continue to be sold and supported globally, and Rhomobile's Rhodes smartphone application development framework will continue to be available as an open source product under the MIT License. Motorola stated that it 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.

RhoElements is 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. RhoElements leverages Motorola's PocketBrowser product, a framework for web-based line-of-business applications.

 

Web/mobile application developed with Motorola Solutions' RhoElements

RhoElements provides an HTML5/advanced JavaScript/CSS application framework for developing web applications and is aimed at developers within Motorola's customer base and PartnerEmpower ecosystem. The product is geared toward helping enterprise customers and PartnerEmpower partners to transition from terminal emulation solutions or legacy browser-based applications to more modern and capable web-based applications. Additionally, RhoElements exposes web developers to device-level APIs, so that they can take advantage of features found in Motorola enterprise mobile computers.

RhoElements 1.0 is available for download here.
 

Editor's note: Look for Mike Riley's review of Rhomobile's RhoMBUS smartphone application development product suite coming soon on DevProConnections.com.