Any Plans To Build for Android/IOS?

[Brian Mains]

Hello,

I've seen Infragistics is working on iOS controls.  I was curious if you were planning anything like native iOS or Android controls?  Or is Icenium and Kendo (as in an HTML 5 approach) the approach that Telerik is taking to mobile?

Thanks.

[Nikolay]

Hi Brian,

Thank you for the question.

Nowadays, technologies are evolving rapidly, so is the Telerik portfolio. Currently, we cannot engage with any firm plans about native iOS development, but such a possibility should not be neglected. Your feedback will be appreciated here in case we decide to follow this path:
- What exactly are you looking for?
- What applications are you planning do develop?
- What toolset would you find useful?
- Any specific features?
- Anything else you find relevant?
- In general, what would you prefer - native or hybrid mobile development and why?

Thank you for your time and cooperation.

Regards,
Nikolay
the Telerik team

[Brian Mains]

Hi Nikolay,

I am getting into native development and have most of my experience in Android development (macs are expensive :-D).  Anyway, here are the answers to your questions:

What exactly are you looking for?
Similar to what you've done in other areas.  To load data into an Android control via a REST service, it requires a lot of code.  You have to setup an AsyncTask, build up the HTTP get or post request, get the data, and load it into the control via an adapter, which has to inflate and programmably create the view.  This can take a lot of time to write.  If we could have the simplicity of defining the view definition in the markup, setting up a web service tied to your data bound control, and it loads the data asynchronously, that enough would be a huge benefit.  To have similar controls that you have provided for Windows Phone would be awesome.

A commonality in API across Android or iOS (obviously, languages cause barriers to this, especially with Objective C) is helpful.

What applications are you planning do develop?
Games and Line of Business applications (mostly what I'm looking to use Telerik for)

What toolset would you find useful?
Eclipse, and XCode - not sure what you mean here.

Any specific features?
Bringing the ASP.NET binding model to Android controls, or linking a data control to a web service would be awesome, where the Telerik control handles the asynchronous process and REST service integration.  A drop down and list control would be excellent. Either way, my request is specific to the UI and having native controls rich in functionality that make it much quicker to develop our views.

Anything else you find relevant?
I haven't found that many controls out there.  There are some open source utilities, but no complete control framework that I could find.

In general, what would you prefer - native or hybrid mobile development and why?
Hybrid for games, and some public business applications.  Native for public and private business applications; private applications choose either android or iOS tablets to work with.  Some public applications need to use the native API, or choose to do so.  For instance, Facebook is rewriting their app as a native application because they felt it was a mistake to use a hybrid approach.

If you have any additional questions, I would be glad to answer them.

Thanks.

[Nikolay]

Hi Brian,

Thank you for your detailed reply. We really appreciate it.

To clarify the question about the toolset - I meant to ask what components would you like to see developed - chart, grid, button, tileview, etc., and what purposes should the desired components serve.

I updated your Telerik points for the feedback. Feel free to let us know if you have anything in particular in mind regarding the toolset.

All the best,
Nikolay
the Telerik team

[Nancy]

Just to butt in here: we'd like to see TileView in Mobile.  Are there any plans to implement that?  Or is there a way to configure the ListView from Kendo UI Mobile to have expanded/collapsed states?

[Brian Mains]

Hey,

OK, that makes sense.  For a list of core controls to create a base framework on, I would suggest:

ListView - A traditional grid would be difficult to implement on a smart phone, but may work on a smart tablet.  However, I think a ListView control, where you can define a template for the item inline, would be great here.  If it could have different templates for portrait and landscape orientation, that would be great.
Combo - The default android combo (Spinner) isn't the greatest.  A combo that's similar to the ASP.NET AJAX combo, or combos in other frameworks, would be awesome.
Date/Time Picker - Just like what's available in ASP.NET AJAX or the other frameworks.
NumericTextBox - Just like what's available in ASP.NET AJAX or the other frameworks.  It's hard to do this in Android.
MaskedTextBox - Just like what's available in ASP.NET AJAX or the other frameworks.  It's hard to do this in Android.
TileView - A tile view would be great way to organize information to the user on a tablet.
Chart - Definitely a useful control that people always look for.

Other ideas would be social controls, animation transition panels (I believe you have this in your Silverlight framework), etc.

If you have any other questions, let me know.

[Nikolay]

Thank you, Nancy and Brian, for your feedback. It is much appreciated.

@Nancy, currently this feature is not supported. However, there is already a request for a TileView at the Feedback Portal of Kendo and you can give your vote for it here.
 
Kind regards,
Nikolay
the Telerik team