Embarcadero Developer Tools Pave the Way to Windows 8

It's hard to believe it's already October. Of course that means the official launch of Windows 8 is rapidly approaching. Today Embarcadero issued a press release about that and ERPLY who are using Delphi for their point-of-sale application for Windows 8. It's part of a series of items you'll see related to the launch of Windows 8.

Keep in mind that you don't have to be using Windows 8 to get started with Metropolis Windows 8 style development in the RAD Studio XE3 tools. You can do almost everything even if your development machine is running on Windows 7 or earlier. And your apps with have the Windows 8 look and functionality (like touch support) when they run on any version of Windows back to Windows XP. The only thing I know of that actually requires Windows 8 on your dev machine or at runtime is if you want to use the Live Tile integration features.

Here's the press release:

Embarcadero Developer Tools Pave the Way to Windows 8

Software Vendors, Such as ERPLY, Move Early for Competitive Advantage

SAN FRANCISCO — Oct. 1, 2012 — Embarcadero Technologies' customers worldwide are gaining a competitive advantage by leveraging the latest version of RAD Studio to quickly migrate existing applications to the Windows 8 user experience. ERPLY, a RAD Studio customer and a software vendor with offices in New York, London and Tallinn, provides Software as a Service for commercial retail inventory and e-commerce, handling data across physical shops, online stores and warehouses.

"We see a clear competitive advantage to early implementation of the Windows 8 user experience," said Kris Hiiemaa, chief executive officer of ERPLY. "We have already migrated our Embarcadero Delphi-based point-of-sale application to Windows 8. We are now using the newest Embarcadero release and are excited with the roadmap to iOS/Android."

Windows 8 provides a very distinctive user interface with support for touch, gestures, and live tiles across desktops, tablets and mobile devices. Thousands of apps are already available, and as Windows 8 achieves its official GA, expected October 26th, Windows 8 adoption will quickly increase as it will become the primary operating system installed on new PCs beginning this fall.

The new Embarcadero development products RAD Studio XE3, Delphi XE3 and C++Builder XE3, released in September, include Metropolis, the fastest path to the Windows 8 user experience. With Metropolis, the Windows 8 user experience does not require rewriting or developing new applications in Windows RT. Metropolis applications also have the distinct advantage of supporting the Windows 8 style across multiple Windows versions enabling developers to cover the widest population of PCs with the new Windows UI style. Additional benefits include:

• Existing Windows desktop apps can be quickly updated to the Windows 8 user experience
• New Windows 8 apps are rapidly and visually developed in C++ or Delphi with the new Windows 8 Metropolis UI and integrated touch support
• Software developers can deliver a single application with Windows 8 style that runs across multiple versions of Windows including Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP
• Developers starting with Metropolis today can have new and existing applications ready for the Windows 8 fall launch kicking off October 26th

"Windows 8 is a major release with significant backing by Microsoft," said Michael Swindell, senior vice president of marketing and product management at Embarcadero. "Though all major Windows upgrades have an adoption curve, software purchasing decisions in the $160b packaged software market are immediately influenced by and biased toward support for the latest Windows versions. Software vendors that support Windows 8 and the new Windows UI style early will benefit from the market momentum and will enjoy an early mover competitive advantage. Embarcadero developer tools make Windows 8 a fast, easy and low-risk move."

For more information on Embarcadero development tools, see http://www.embarcadero.com/products/rad-studio.

About Embarcadero Technologies

Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of award-winning tools for application developers and database professionals so they can design systems right, build them faster and run them better, regardless of their platform or programming language. Ninety of the Fortune 100 and an active community of more than three million users worldwide rely on Embarcadero products to increase productivity, reduce costs, simplify change management and compliance, and accelerate innovation. Founded in 1993, Embarcadero is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices located around the world. www.embarcadero.com.

Press Contact:
Kristina Lanpheir
Kulesa Faul for Embarcadero Technologies
650-340-1992
Kristina@kulesafaul.com