Mobile distillery launches device database

Mobile Distillery, the leading specialist in software solutions for mobile application production and testing services, has announced the launch of Alembic, its unique device knowledge database and device characteristic search engine. Alembic offers the most comprehensive and widely tested insight into the behaviors and capabilities of the vast majority of mobile devices available on the market. The web-based Alembic service will be previewed at CTIA Wireless 2008 in San Francisco on 10-12 September.
 
For developers, marketing and product managers, the sheer detail and accuracy of Alembic allows them to clearly understand their market potential and base their prototypes on tested data. It is now possible to identify which makes and models of mobile handsets their application could potentially work on before they write a single line of code, reducing the investment and production risks incurred for the development of mobile applications.
 
Based on Mobile Distillery’s seven years of R&D and in-depth handset knowledge, Alembic includes the detailed characteristics, performances and behaviors of more than 1000 Java handsets which are used by consumers and businesses today. More than 30 new devices are being added to Alembic every month on a worldwide basis, as new devices come to market. No other solution in the industry today offers this level of detail.
 
Alembic’s powerful query interface greatly simplifies searches based on multiple handset criteria. Its core data is the result of rigorous, industrial testing, with handsets tested for +1000 individual characteristics, behaviors and performance benchmarks, which are then checked and verified by Mobile Distillery’s dedicated integration teams. Developers simply select the different capabilities and features they plan to include in their applications such as Bluetooth, 3D graphics or GPS; within seconds, Alembic generates a unique list of every device that is capable of supporting that particular feature set.
 
As a powerful add-on service to Alembic, developers can also work directly with Mobile Distillery to integrate their own specific device criteria. These new parameters are then included in Mobile Distillery’s software and rigorous testing processes for future use.
 
A key feature of Alembic is that it is directly integrated into Celsius, Mobile Distillery’s automatic porting suite. This allows developers, from a single interface, to search devices compatible with their application all in one click for compilation. With Alembic, developers also know which device is supported by DeviceAnywhere’s testing solution, which provides developers real-time interaction with handsets directly from their computer, enhancing the whole mobile application production workflow from prototyping to development through testing and backfilling.
 
“For many companies, the cost of dealing with the hundreds of devices and thousands of configurations often means that their mobile applications never make it off the drawing board. With Alembic, for the first time, companies can base their development decision on accurate, verified information; this is like giving developers a personalized crystal ball to understand their market,” said Eric Lemaréchal, Co-Founder and CEO of Mobile Distillery.
 
“With Celsius, its automatic porting suite, Mobile Distillery has changed the way developers approach mobile applications, giving them the power to create complex applications with a high level of automation and control, reaching the best of every device. Now, thanks to Alembic, they can save hundreds of hours of investment with just a few clicks. For developers, the combination of Alembic and Celsius is the next best thing to remove the problem of fragmentation once and for all,” said Vincent Berge, Co-Founder and General Manager of Mobile Distillery.