Xamarin Releases Mono for Android 4.0, Enabling C# Development on Android Tablet Devices

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Xamarin, a mobile application platform startup founded by Miguel de Icaza, Nat Friedman and Joseph Hill, today announced immediate availability of Mono for Android 4.0. Mono for Android 4.0 is the first release from Xamarin that allows C# developers to target Android tablet devices such as Kindle Fire®, Motorola Xoom® and Samsung GALAXY Tab®.

“Thousands of developers depend on Xamarin to build the newest applications for mobile devices”

With this release, Xamarin provides access to all of the new features introduced by Google on their Android 4.0 operating system, codenamed “Ice Cream Sandwich.” The release features a plugin for Visual Studio* that lets .NET developers feel right at home when developing applications for Android. The release also includes a new, incremental build technology that reduces debugging and development cycles dramatically, making application development smoother than ever before.

Mono for Android complements Xamarin’s existing MonoTouch platform, which allows developers to create applications for the iPhone and iPad using C# and .NET technologies. Combined with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 SDK, C# developers -- more than 6 million worldwide -- now have a unified framework and language across all three major mobile platforms: Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7.

“Thousands of developers depend on Xamarin to build the newest applications for mobile devices,” said Miguel de Icaza, CTO of Xamarin. “We bring C# and .NET to Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS, but we bring it with style. We provide developers with the power of the .NET frameworks that they are used to, along with complete access to all of the native APIs and UI toolkits unique to each operating system, allowing developers to create truly unique native experiences on each operating system.”

As one of the world’s most advanced high-performance runtime environments, Xamarin’s MonoTouch and Mono for Android products enable .NET developers to use their existing code, libraries and tools, including Visual Studio, as well as skills in .NET and the C# programming language, to create mobile applications for the industry’s most widely used mobile devices running iOS and Android.

Mono for Android 4.0 gives Visual Studio developers a way to create Android applications with the same ease as other .NET platforms. The most significant enhancements improve developer productivity with faster development and device deployment. Build times are 40 percent shorter while incremental deployment to devices shortens the development cycle from minutes to seconds.

Nathan Clevenger, chief software architect for mobile consulting and development firm ITR Mobility states, “Mono for Android allows our many Fortune 500 clients to not only reuse existing C# .NET code, but also future-proof their on-going mobile investments.”

With Mono for Android 4.0, Xamarin has introduced a new, simple installer which takes the pain out of setting up an Android development environment, by combining all the required components into a single, unified installation experience, as opposed to the myriad of installs required for Java-based Android development.

“Our mission is to provide the world’s best mobile development experience,” said Nat Friedman, CEO of Xamarin. “This release demonstrates that mission. Mono for Android 4.0 is a faster and smoother way of developing mobile applications for Android.”

With this release, Xamarin has also published a set of “Getting Started” tutorials that allow developers to quickly come up to speed on Android development.

For more information and to download Mono for Android 4.0, visit: http://android.xamarin.com/.

About Xamarin

Xamarin was founded in 2011 with the mission to make it fast, easy and fun to build great mobile apps. Xamarin’s products simplify creation of mobile applications targeting multiple platforms, including iOS and Android. Founded and staffed by many notable developers from the open source community, Xamarin is also steward to the Mono project—the open source, cross-platform implementation of C# and the .NET framework. For more information, visit http://xamarin.com.

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