Formotus Lets Anyone Deploy Smartphone Apps

Formotus this week debuted a new service-based offering that lets IT staff, including non-developers, create mobile applications that can be delivered to and run on wireless devices.

The vendor's FormoPublish service is centered around Microsoft Office and Windows Mobile devices. Specifically, FormoPublish applications are created using Microsoft's Office InfoPath application, a tool for building forms-based applications. FormoPublish then converts and deploys the forms-based apps as mobile XML data applications, delivered over-the-air directly to mobile devices with the help of Microsoft Sharepoint Server.Formotus' SaaS architecture means the enterprises can use existing or easily-deployed tools such as Microsoft Office while leveraging specialty mobile app tools on an as-needed basis as a service, the vendor said.

FormoPublish is available in a Professional Edition, which is deployed through an online subscription model, as well as an Enterprise Edition. The Enterprise version is geared toward companies wanting to deploy their own server-based application behind the firewall. Both editions are priced at $35 per device per month, for unlimited applications.