Alcatel-Lucent has announced two initiatives to fuel the growth of applications that work across platforms and devices.

Effective immediately, OpenPlug Studio will now be available to application developers free of charge.  OpenPlug Studio is a development toolkit that allows developers to efficiently create native applications for smart phones, tablets and other web-connected devices from a single code base using well-known web development technologies such as JavaScript, ActionScript and XML.  

The company also launched a Certified OpenPlug Solutions Provider Program focused on application development and developer training.  Initial members include Exuvis, Nexworld and On3.  They’ll teach developers how to use the OpenPlug tools, while also building mobile applications for businesses that run on any platform or device and leverage service providers’ network-based APIs (application programming interfaces). 

These new initiatives will make it easier for a new generation of applications to be developed and rolled out ‘at the speed of ideas’ – a core commitment of Alcatel-Lucent in its support of the application developer community.

 “One of the things we set out to do when we created the Open API Platform was address the entire API and app ecosystem. Making OpenPlug Studio free puts one of the industry’s most powerful tools into the hands of more developers.  And building a formal partner program further supports the need across all industries to provide the education and tools to meet the demands of the connected business, ,” said Laura Merling, Senior Vice President of Alcatel-Lucent’s Application Enablement Strategy & Platform.