Native plugins, third party support for Google and comScore, personalized push notification API and more underscore second wave of hybrid app platforms
BOSTON, November 15, 2012 - Brightcove (NASDAQ: BCOV), a leading global provider of cloud content services, is bringing HTML5 mobile app development to a higher level of maturity with a major new release of the Brightcove App Cloud mobile app platform. By combining a Web-friendly development model with an easy-to-use plugin model, the new release of App Cloud provides a dramatic improvement over first generation hybrid app platforms like Adobe’s PhoneGap.
The new release introduces an open native plugin architecture, includes built-in integrations with major third-party technologies from Google and comScore, and dramatically expands App Cloud’s integrated support for push notifications. By bringing together the native device APIs and supporting cloud services required to deliver rich, content-centric applications into a highly productive, fully-supported platform, App Cloud enables Web developers to build mobile and tablet apps more quickly and cost-effectively for both iOS and Android platforms.
“If you are building a content-centric app for iOS or Android, App Cloud offers the most complete platform and the most Web-friendly development experience,” said Phil Costa, director of product management for App Cloud at Brightcove. “Toolkits like PhoneGap only get you part of the way. Publishers and brands now need a complete platform that spans the entire lifecycle to help them develop, customize, operate, market, iterate and extend the lifetime of their apps.”
“Switching from PhoneGap to App Cloud to develop cross-platform apps for our clients has enabled us to decrease our development time by 40 percent,” said Bill Quinn, managing director at Lightmaker, a leading global digital agency. “App Cloud has made it easy for us to deliver high quality custom apps to meet a range of client objectives, while making the development experience much faster. The new native plugins will give us even more options to expand the capabilities of the platform and offer broader app functionality to our clients.”
Open Plugin Architecture and Partner Integration
The new App Cloud plugin model makes it easy for developers to extend the native functionality that is built into App Cloud. Other hybrid app technologies offer native plugin capabilities, but developers soon find that the available plugins are frequently out-of-date, largely unsupported, and more trouble than they are worth. App Cloud developers can choose from a growing library of fully tested and fully supported App Cloud plugins, such as a native media uploader, native audio player, or in-app email composer, as well as plugins that integrate with third-party cloud services such as Google Analytics or comScore Digital Analytix.
Adding a pre-built plugin is as simple as copying a directory into their App Cloud project and including a JavaScript file. Brightcove’s cloud compilation service then automatically embeds the new functionality in the customer’s application and produces binaries ready for distribution through app stores. Developers will also be able to build custom native plugins of their own using the soon to be released App Cloud plugin development kit (PDK).
In the future, Brightcove plans to utilize the new native plugin architecture to introduce new capabilities to App Cloud including native video players for iOS and Android, DRM-protected video, and in-app purchases through leading app stores.
New Push Notification APIs
This release also delivers a significant expansion of App Cloud’s integrated support for push notifications. App Cloud developers can leverage a new set of client and server APIs to send individual push notifications to a particular app user or group users into custom-defined segments. For example, a news application could create segments focused on topical areas, allowing users to specify their interest in particular topics, while opting out of others. By targeting notifications by segment, developers can increase user engagement by notifying users only when content is relevant to their interests.
As with previous releases, App Cloud automatically manages the interfaces to the Apple and Android push notification services and collects real-time analytics on users’ response to push notifications. And in keeping with App Cloud’s focus on productivity, developers do not need any native development tools to add push notifications to their applications.
Availability
App Cloud’s new plugin architecture is now available to all customers, including users of App Cloud Core, the free open source version. The native media uploader and in-app email composer are built into version 1.12 of the App Cloud SDK. Additional free plugins, including the native audio player and Google Analytics plugins, are downloadable from the open source plugins repository hosted on GitHub. The comScore Digital Analytix and DRM plugins are currently expected be released later this year. The new push notification APIs are available immediately to customers with subscriptions to the App Cloud Pro or Enterprise editions.
About Brightcove
Brightcove Inc. (NASDAQ: BCOV), a leading global provider of cloud content services, offers a family of products used to publish and distribute the world’s professional digital media. The company’s products include Video Cloud, the market-leading online video platform, App Cloud, a pioneering content app platform, and Zencoder, a leading cloud-based media processing service and HTML5 video player technology provider. Brightcove has more than 6,100 customers in over 60 countries that rely on Brightcove cloud content services to build and operate media experiences across PCs, smartphones, tablets and connected TVs. For more information, visit http://www.brightcove.com.
Press Contacts
North America
Lisa Langsdorf
SutherlandGold Group for Brightcove
212-905-6218
llangsdorf@sutherlandgold.com
Europe
Sheena Riviera
AxiCom for Brightcove
+44 20 8392 4064
sheena.riviera@axicom.com
This press release may include forward-looking statements regarding anticipated objectives, growth and/or expected product and service developments or enhancements. Such forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of the following words (among others): "believes," "expects," "may," "will," "plan," "should" or "anticipates," or comparable words and their negatives. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees but are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations contained in these statements. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q. Brightcove assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release in the event of changing circumstances or otherwise, and such statements are current only as of the date they are made.