IoT WORLD CONFERENCE, SAN FRANCSICO, May 12, 2015 – Ayla Networks, whose agile Internet of Things (IoT) platform enables manufacturers to create secure connected products easily and make better product decisions as a result of being connected, today announced the Agile Mobile Application Platform (AMAP). Manufacturers of connected products can license the Agile Mobile Application Platform to create mobile apps to control their products, getting to market four to six times faster than is possible with alternative approaches.
Designed for IoT solutions using the Ayla cloud, AMAP provides the 85 percent of coding and development work common to any high-performing, reliable and secure IoT mobile app, in the form of vertical market-specific workflows. Manufacturers need only specify the 15 percent of functionality required to personalize and differentiate their products and to ’skin’ the app with their company branding.
“Few manufacturers possess the sophisticated software engineering and user-interface design expertise to develop mobile applications that meet end users’ high expectations for a mobile app user experience,” said David Friedman, CEO and co-founder of Ayla Networks. “Ayla exists to handle the underlying complexity of making IoT connectivity work, freeing manufacturers to focus on their core expertise in making great versions of whatever they do best—whether it’s a smart plug, a thermostat, a water heater or a home appliance. By using the Ayla IoT platform in general, and AMAP in particular, manufacturers can get better products to market faster and more affordably, with far less risk and while delivering an excellent user experience.”
Speeding Time to Market for Mobile Control of IoT Devices
The Agile Mobile Application Platform lets manufacturers begin almost at the finish line to develop iOS and Android apps—simultaneously—for controlling IoT devices of any kind. With AMAP, manufacturers can quickly and easily provide their end users with a high-quality mobile app that is optimized for controlling their particular device(s) within a connected IoT environment.
“Other approaches to IoT mobile app development simply hand over software libraries to manufacturers, who then must invest enormous amounts of time and money to create, from scratch, custom mobile apps specifically designed to control connected versions of their products,” said Friedman. “The Agile Mobile Application Platform approach is completely different. Manufacturers can offload the bulk of their mobile app development effort to AMAP, using Ayla-certified developers or their own teams to add manufacturer-specific design and details to their mobile apps.”
The Agile Mobile Application Platform interoperates seamlessly with the rest of the Ayla Agile IoT Platform—including the Ayla Agent device-embedded software and Ayla cloud software—which work with any ‘thing’ that manufacturers want to make part of the IoT.
How the Agile Mobile Application Platform Works
The Agile Mobile Application Platform, built upon Ayla’s mobile software libraries, provides pre-made, pre-tested software code that supports the primary features that consumers expect from mobile app control of a connected device, such as sign-in, user registration, device setup and control, password recovery, Wi-Fi and Zigbee setup, schedule creation and management, support for push notification and timer setup. Ayla provides the AMAP code as workflows optimized for specific vertical markets, including HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), major home appliances or lighting.
AMAP is scalable to any type of connected device. It provides a framework on top of the application program interfaces (APIs) and mobile libraries that allow IoT devices to connect to the Ayla cloud and to integrate with iOS or Android code. All AMAP code development is done in native Objective C and Java languages, which ensures a high level of quality for manufacturers’ mobile apps.
Ayla-Certified Application Development Partners
The Agile Mobile Application Platform was designed and built in cooperation with a number of software development companies that have already worked with Ayla to provide mobile apps for Ayla customers’ connected devices. Ayla plans to name additional qualified and certified AMAP developers that manufacturers can hire to develop the ‘last mile’ of their mobile app. Ayla mobile application development partners are certified as proficient in AMAP code. They can personalize and support IoT mobile apps for manufacturers that don’t have their own development teams. Ayla-certified development partners currently include Blue Rocket, Cardinal Peak, Duff Lite and iTexico.
“The difference between starting with the AMAP approach versus any other IoT approach is like night and day,” said Wm Jess Taylor, CEO and founder of Blue Rocket, a custom mobile app studio for both startups and established companies. “You can almost see the worry draining from manufacturers’ faces when they realize we can deliver a great mobile app and connected device experience into their customers’ hands working with AMAP.”
“The Agile Mobile Application Platform is a breeze to work with,” said Howdy Pierce, co-CEO and founder of Cardinal Peak, a contract engineering services company that specializes in IoT application development. “It lets us move rapidly to completion of a personalized mobile app that meets a specific manufacturer’s goals.”
“The most serious concerns about custom mobile app development are time, cost and risk,” said Brian King, managing partner of Duff Lite, a premiere mobile software development cooperative. “By pre-building the bulk of the code that is common to any good mobile app, Ayla lets custom mobile app specialists like us come in and focus just on the high-value manufacturer-specific code—which greatly diminishes the time, cost and risk to deliver the finished app.” “Starting with pre-built and fully tested code is like starting a race within sight of the finish line,” said Anurag Kumar, CEO of iTexico, a global software technology company that focuses on mobile development. “The Ayla Mobile Application Platform shatters manufacturers’ expectations of what it takes to bring a really great connected mobile app to market.”
AMAP Pricing Model
Manufacturers license the AMAP software for an up-front license fee plus an annual maintenance fee, which varies depending on the complexity of the product and of the vertical- specific workflows. The manufacturers can then contract with an Ayla-certified mobile application development partner, or use in-house developers or other developers of their choosing, to finalize and brand the mobile app, as well as to add new features and functionality over time.
About Ayla Networks
Ayla Networks provides the industry’s first Agile IoT platform, accelerating development, support and ongoing enhancements of connected products for the Internet of Things. Ayla’s end-to-end platform runs across devices, cloud and apps to create secure connectivity, data analytics and feature-rich customer experiences. Delivered as a cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS), Ayla’s Agile IoT platform provides the flexibility and modularity to enable rapid changes to practically any type of device, cloud or app environment. Ayla’s investors include Cisco, the International Finance Corporation, SAIF Partners, Crosslink Capital, Voyager Capital, Linear Venture and SJF Ventures. For more information, visit www.aylanetworks.com.
