iOS, Android Devs at The Heart of New Industry Association

Next week, a longstanding hope of many mobile app developers will finally materialize.

At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Application Developers Alliance will officially launch as the first professional industry association for mobile application developers.

Led by former Digital Media Association executive director Jon Potter, the new organization exists chiefly to promote "the best interests" of mobile APP developers. That means everything from facilitating education opportunities to spearheading government lobbying efforts.

Not surprisingly, the Application Developers Alliance will focus heavily on iOS and Android, although other mobile app and web developers are also welcome.

Key services included as part of the alliance include:

• a collaboration network, via an online database
• product-testing facilities offering access to multiple platforms and tools
• discounted and free tutorials on trends and technologies, as well as structured training and certification programs
• discounted hosting and cloud services via Rack space

"Our thought now is there's an interesting space in the application developer community that isn't really organized," Potter tells Info World.

The organization's first big goal? Recruiting.

"We're going to be at the meetups all around the country, we're going to be at conferences, we're going to be talking to folks, we're going to be polling people," Potter says.

Source: InfoWorld