In A Play For More HTML5 Muscle, Intel Buys appMobi’s HTML5 Developer Tools, Leaving appMobi To Focus On The Cloud

Intel will not be left out of the party when it comes to being central in the mobile app ecosystem. The company today acquired a set of HTML5 development tools, originally created by appMobi and used by some 150,000 developers, and has hired staff from appMobi that worked on the product to continue to maintain it. appMobi, meanwhile, is going to forge ahead as a standalone company, focused on the remaining part of its business as a provider of cloud services for mobile applications. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition was first made public by appMobi in a letter sent out to the 150,000+ developers that use its platform. A copy of that letter was sent to TechCrunch and is below.

In it, appMobi spells out the basics of what Intel has now taken under its wing. In short, it’s a set of app creation and testing tools that cover mobile web, Windows 8 and Windows Phone, iOS, Android and more.

It’s not clear exactly why appMobi, which has raised $8.1 million in VC funding to date, decided to sell this part of their business to Intel, but it is likely that the cloud portion of appMobi’s business, tied in as it is with monetizing apps and other services, may have been yielding better returns for the company. On the other hand, Intel has long been courting mobile app developers and wanting to grow its influence in mobile (both externally though projects like AppUp and of course chips, but alsointernally) and this gives the company one more route to connecting with them and developing those relationships. In that regard, it’s less of a strain on Intel’s balance sheet to maintain those tools.