Technology startup Codename One launched its 1.0 mobile development platform today, allowing more developers to create native mobile applications across mobile operating systems using a single Java code base.

The platform's beta version, which released in July, reached 100,000 downloads this month. So far, it has been used to build more than 1,000 mobile apps in a variety of categories ranging from sports to business and everything in between.

"We estimate that we will double the amount of apps within two months," said co-founder Shai Almog to Mobile Enterprise. "Enterprises are a major focus and we are working with some of the current mobile enterprise platforms on a way to bolster their platform with Java based client side development."

The Great Disrupter

Codename One was named by Forbes as one of the 10 greatest industry disrupting startups of 2012.

Started by two former Sun Microsystems engineers, Almog and Chen Fishbein, the co-founders decided to launch the venture after noticing a growing inefficiency within mobile application development.

Almog and Fishbein engineered Sun Microsystems’s Lightweight User Interface Toolkit, a mobile platform used by leading mobile carriers.

By enabling developers to significantly cut time and costs in developing native applications for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows 7 Phone and other devices, the co-founders hope to make mobile application development increasingly feasible.

The Java-based platform is open-source and utilizes lightweight technology, as opposed to HTML5 or heavyweight technology.
 

By drawing all components from scratch rather than utilizing native widgets, Codename One is designed to enable developers to avoid fragmentation and additionally allows accurate desktop simulation of mobile apps.