Titanium App Development Software Under New Non-Profit Management

On April 7th, 2022, Alabama software nonprofit TiDev was assigned intellectual property trademark rights along with repository control of the open source Titanium framework by publicly traded Arizona corporation Axway.

Titanium, released in 2008, was developed with over $90 million of venture funding. TiDev Board Chair Josh Lambert said he is thrilled the foundation for maintaining Titanium will be based in his hometown of Centreville.

“As a long-time mobile developer here in Central Alabama building apps for iPhone and Android devices, it is a great joy and honor to see my favorite app development technology return to the Southern USA and locate in the community I call home,” Lambert said.

The TiDev team has already started the process of merging bug-fixes/improvements into the source code. Lambert said plans are to ship the first community release of Titanium in May 2022.

“The Titanium SDK and related tooling has a long legacy of making app development a clean and streamlined process for both iPhone and Android devices,” he said. “We have assembled an international board of directors with a depth of experience in working with the Titanium product and they are committed to ensuring that this software is maintained going forward as the next generation of apps are built on top of it.”

Atlanta-founded startup Appcelerator under direction of CEO Jeff Haynie was the original developer for Titanium. Titanium allows a developer to build an app for Android/iOS devices using a single set of JavaScript code. In 2010, Titanium gained support for tablets like Apple’s iPad and later for wearables such as the Apple Watch.

Titanium is one of the oldest app frameworks maintained today. In 2013  Business Insider reported 10% of smartphones worldwide were running apps built with Titanium.

In 2016, Appcelerator was acquired by Axway who continued developing Titanium for several years, adding features and improvements to the software.

On Feb. 24, 2021, Axway announced they would no longer maintain the Titanium software. Shortly after Axway’s announcement, a working group of long-time Titanium developers Josh Lambert, Jason Kneen, Chris Barber, Sebastian Klaus, Ray Belisle, and Richard Lustemburg, laid plans for a community foundation to maintain Titanium. Shortly thereafter an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) tax-exempt software foundation emerged with a registered business address in Bibb County.

Lambert said plans are to keep Titanium maintained for iOS/Android and adapt the software to other platforms.

“In addition to maintenance of existing code, we’re taking a long and hard look at other platforms Titanium could be useful on. As app-driven computers are integrated into more and more places such as smart TVs, VR tech, new wearable devices, and of course — electric vehicles — we see the need for systems like Titanium to grow in the future. If we can find funding to add support for these platforms, you better believe we’re going to try to support those too!”

TiDev is currently funded by individual donations and relies on them to maintain the framework. Donations can be made via Github Sponsors or Liberapay.

Github Sponsors: https://github.com/sponsors/tidev

Liberapay: https://liberapay.com/tidev

About TiDev, Inc.

TiDev, Inc exists for the following purposes:

1.) To ensure the Titanium SDK is actively maintained and developed for years to come. This means rapid attention to bugs introduced with new iOS/Android updates, as well as addition of features to the SDK that enable full compatibility with new features added to the iOS and Android mobile operating systems.
2.) To actively grow the Titanium developer community. This means organization of paid and volunteer efforts to make our documentation for the SDK amazing, make the technical process for a new programmer to work with the platform as simple as possible, and to encourage/boost/market programmers doing things such as live-streams demonstrating the capabilities of the platform.
3.) To improve the reputation of the Titanium ecosystem. This means showing corporations and programmers alike that this platform is amazing, actively supported, and can be trusted for building new applications.
4.) To create a trusted channel for getting support around the platform. This means marketing the free support provided via TiSlack and StackOverflow, as well as creating a paid enterprise support channel enabling large corporations to purchase dedicated support for the SDK from our core engineers.
5.) To better communicate what modules built for Titanium are actively supported and can be trusted for development. This means keeping an active list somewhere, perhaps on the TiDev website, of what modules (and forks of modules) are actively maintained and useful. Aka, not abandonware.