Novell is officially launching Mono for Android 1.0, a framework that will allow third-party developers to build native Android applications in C#. It complements the company's existing MonoTouch offering, which supports C# development for Apple's iOS mobile operating system.
The Mono project is an open source implementation of Microsoft's .NET framework and language compilers. Due to its permissive license and technical flexibility, Mono has opened the door for .NET to come to many new computing environments, including mobile and embedded platforms.
Capitalizing on the opportunity to open up iOS to developers with existing C# expertise, Novell launched its commercial MonoTouch framework in 2009. MonoTouch uses ahead-of-time compilation to conform with Apple's App Store requirements. It also offers comprehensive bindings for UIKit and other iOS platform APIs, making it possible to build fully native-looking applications with standard user interface elements. The company has been working on an equivalent product for Android development, which is finally ready for a public launch after a year of development.
Mono for Android integrates with Visual Studio on Windows and MonoDevelop and Mac OS X, providing tooling support and other functionality that simplifies the development and deployment process. The Android APIs have been wrapped in C# and adapted to work neatly with the programming language. Unlike MonoTouch, which is somewhat hampered by some of Apple's security restrictions, Mono for Android can take advantage of full JIT compilation.
Developers who are building mobile applications with MonoTouch or for Windows Phone 7 could use Mono for Android to port their applications to Google's mobile operating system. Of course, the obvious downside is that developers will still have to build separate user interfaces for each platform due to the fundamental differences in native user interface APIs.
A Mono for Android license will cost $399 for an individual developer. A one-seat enterprise license costs $999. For more details you can refer to the product's official website.
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