Funambol, a provider of open source mobile cloud sync and push email for billions of phones, has reportedly acquired Zapatec, a provider of AJAX web 2.0 frameworks.

 

With this acquisition, the company expects to address the industry pervasive device fragmentation challenge that plagues developers and requires building native apps for too many platforms.

Funambol (News - Alert) says it expects this acquisition to foster a new generation of open, rich mobile browser native apps for billions of smart- and feature phones, thanks to integration of its open source mobile sync and push server with Zapatec’s AJAX web 2.0 technology.

 

The integration will enable Funambol, its customers and the open source community to create a new generation of open, rich mobile native apps that “sync & push” billions of devices to address the device fragmentation problem.

 

In a release, company officials said that this provides the best of both worlds -- “rich mobile web native apps that 'sync and push' and that work on all devices.”

 

Fabrizio Capobianco (News - Alert), CEO at Funambol, said that the future mobile apps will resemble PC AJAX apps, they will be Web-based yet will sync data with mobile devices and have push notifications.

 

“Together, our technology allows us to create the next generation of open, rich mobile browser native apps that sync and push billions of devices,” he added.

 

Industry experts believe that the next generation of mobile apps will be Web-based, similar to AJAX web 2.0 apps for PC browsers that provide desktop-like capabilities and ease-of-use.

 

Funambol said that it recognizes that just providing rich mobile browser apps will not be sufficient, and apps must also sync data and content locally with mobile devices and have push capabilities similar to push email.

 

The company said that the apps must also be integrated into the core apps on devices such as their address book, calendar and messaging clients. The integration of Funambol and Zapatec technology will provide all of the required resources to build the next generation of open, rich mobile browser native apps.

 

As per the acquisition agreement, Dror Matalon, CEO at Zapatec, is joining Funambol’s leadership team as vice president for emerging technology.

 

“Open source is on fire in mobile, and Funambol is at the forefront,” said Matalon, “Together, our technology can make it easy for people to build rich mobile native apps that support all major platforms.”