News
Issue #2003 - 13 (April 2003)
(Updated Apr. 16, 2003)

APPLICATION SOLUTIONS & APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

Sybase Opens Mobile Development to PowerBuilder Community

Pocket PowerBuilder Enables Developers to Leverage Existing Expertise and Applications for Mobile Deployments

SYNOPSIS:
Sybase, Inc. announces beta of Sybase® Pocket PowerBuilder®, enabling developers to leverage their PowerBuilder expertise and applications for the mobile arena.

• PowerBuilder developers will be able to leverage this new offering in the best-in-class rapid application development (RAD) platform to target Windows CE-based devices. 
• The patented Sybase DataWindow® will be extended to mobile environments. 
• Tight integration with SQL Anywhere® Studio, the market-leading mobile database.

DUBLIN, Calif. - April 14, 2003 - Sybase, Inc., a leading enterprise infrastructure and integration company, today announced the upcoming beta release of Pocket PowerBuilder, a new technology designed to simplify and speed the creation of mobile and wireless enterprise applications for PowerBuilder developers. Using Pocket PowerBuilder, developers will be able to leverage their existing expertise and applications to extend enterprise information to Windows CE-based devices. 
"We are long-time PowerBuilder users because of its superior rapid application development environment and innovative DataWindow technology, both of which significantly speed application development," said Chris Pollach, president of Software Tool and Die. "We are excited to now use these same capabilities for mobile development, enabling us to meet our customers' need for sophisticated mobile applications much more quickly than we expected."

"Enterprises are looking to leverage their existing technology and data as a way to reduce development costs and speed time to market," said Dr. Raj Nathan, senior vice president and general manager, Sybase Enterprise Solutions Division. "With Pocket PowerBuilder, enterprises will be able to extend their enterprise applications to mobile environments without requiring new IT investments or development skills, making mobile computing accessible to PowerBuilder developers."

Developers interested in joining the beta program can find more information online at http://www.sybase.com/XXX.  Feature highlights of Pocket PowerBuilder include:

• Providing PowerBuilder developers with the same best-in-class rapid application development (RAD) platform that they rely upon today. Pocket PowerBuilder will deliver the first highly productive 4GL IDE for mobile development.
• Extending the patented Sybase DataWindow to mobile environments, enabling dynamic data access with display formatting and data manipulation capabilities - all without coding. 
• Introducing tight integration with SQL Anywhere Studio, the market-leading mobile database and enterprise synchronization solution, simplifying the creation of database-powered mobile enterprise applications.

For more information, visit the Sybase Web site: http://www.sybase.com.

MobileInfo Comments and Advisory: We welcome Sybase mobilizing PowerBuilder. In fact, we are surprised that it took Sybase so long to do it. With significant stake in mobile computing application development through its iAnywhere subsidiary and Mobile database leadership, this should have happened long time ago. Better late than never. We support the notion that mobile application development platforms should be compatible with and extension of legacy application development platforms wherever appropriate. PowerBuilder has following of thousands of developers. This should give them an opportunity to offer desktop applications on handheld devices through wireless networks using iAnywhere gateway. 

 Note: This news release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and section 21E of Securities Exchange act of 1934 in USA. Similar provisions exist in other countries. There is no assurance that the stipulated plans of vendors will be implemented. MobileInfo does not warrant the authenticity of the information. Readers should take appropriate caution in developing plans utilizing these products, services and technology architectures.  All trademarks used in this summary are the property of their respective owners.