The Titanium cross-platform app development software has moved to a new home in the Birmingham suburb of Centreville, Alabama. On April 7th, 2022 publicly traded Arizona corporation Axway, Inc (AXW.PA) assigned the intellectual property trademark rights along with repository control of the open source Titanium project to Alabama non-profit software foundation TiDev, Inc.
In commenting on this transition, TiDev Board Chairman Josh Lambert provided the following statement:
“As a long time mobile developer here in Central Alabama building apps for iPhone and Android devices, it is a great joy and honor to see my favorite app development technology return to the southern USA and locate in the community I call home. The Titanium SDK and related tooling has a long legacy of making app development a clean and stream-lined process for both iPhone and Android devices. We have assembled an international board of directors with a depth of experience in working with the Titanium product and they are committed to ensuring that this software is maintained going forward as the next generation of apps are built on top of it.”
Arriving on the software scene in December of 2008, Jeff Haynie’s Atlanta-founded startup Appcelerator released the Titanium software development kit. What this software kit does is allow for a developer to build an app for both Android and iPhone devices using a single set of familiar JavaScript source code. Without something like Titanium, you might need two separate development teams coding in two separate languages to ensure your apps support most consumer and business devices.
Titanium has enjoyed a popular deployment history since its initial release in 2008. In 2010, Titanium gained support for tablets like Apple’s beloved iPad. Support would later be added for wearables such as the Apple Watch. Titanium also found its way on to the once popular Windows Phone software and at one time ran on Blackberry devices as well. Over $90 million dollars of venture capital was raised to develop this technology, and it is one of the oldest app development frameworks actively maintained today. As far back as 2013 the publication Business Insider reported that 10% of smartphones worldwide were running apps built with Titanium.
In 2016, Appcelerator, the company behind the original launch of Titanium, was acquired by Axway, Inc. Axway continued the development of Titanium for several years adding features and continuing to improve the software. On Feburary 24th, 2021 Axway announced that they would no longer maintain the Titanium software projects. Within a few days of Axway’s announcement, a working group of long-time Titanium developers including Josh Lambert, Jason Kneen, Chris Barber, Sebastian Klaus, Ray Belisle, and Richard Lustemburg, began laying plans for a community-driven approach to maintaining this software.
This group was able to put together a team and a non-profit, IRS approved, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt software foundation emerged with a registered business address in Bibb County, Alabama. Axway finalized the transfer of rights to the Titanium SDK to TiDev, Inc. on April 7, 2022. The transfer of trademark and patent rights to TiDev, Inc. were recorded with the USPTO in the month of April 2022.
All Titanium source-code is open-source and can be found on the foundation’s GitHub account here: https://github.com/tidev
In commenting on the future plans for Titanium, TiDev’s Josh Lambert provided the following comments:
“TiDev will primarily be focused on ensuring the Titanium SDK and tooling stays actively maintained and patched for both current and future versions of iOS and Android. This means adding support for features that could be introduced on future smartphones, dealing with security patches and other related concerns, and adding developer experience features that make it better and faster to build apps. In addition to maintenance of existing code, we’re taking a long and hard look at other platforms Titanium could be useful on. As app-driven computers are integrated into more and more places such as smart TVs, VR tech, new wearable devices, and of course — electric vehicles — we see the need for systems like Titanium to grow in the future. If we can find funding to add support for these platforms, you better believe we’re going to try to support those too!”
In April 2022, Mercedes-Benz International (MBUSI) opened their $1B EV battery plant and logistics center in Bibb County, Alabama. In nearby Montgomery, Alabama automaker Hyundai recently announced plans to begin building the hybrid version of its Santa Fe sport utility along with the first electrified Genesis GV70 SUV as the Montgomery factory expands its U.S. production to include electric vehicles. Honda has an automobile manufacturing plant in nearby Lincoln, Alabama and Toyota has manufacturing capacity in the Huntsville area. It is yet to be seen what impact this may have on Titanium and if Titanium-built apps might find their way on to the platforms of electric vehicles that are being manufactured so nearby to the new home of Titanium.
The TiDev, Inc development team has already started the process of merging bug-fixes and improvements into the software source code. Lambert indicated the foundation plans to ship the first community-driven release of Titanium in May of 2022.
You can learn more about the Titanium software on the official Titanium SDK website here:
You can find the home page for the non-profit foundation here:
FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact the TiDev Board Chairman: Josh Lambert
Email: josh@lambertmail.xyz | Website: https://joshlambert.xyz
