Microsoft unveils Azure toolkits for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone

Microsoft is encouraging developers to build mobile apps that take advantage of cloud services with the launch of new Windows Azure Toolkits supporting Apple's iOS, Android and the firm's own Windows Phone platform.

Collectively known as Windows Azure Toolkits for Devices, these are available to download now for iOS and Windows Phone, with a preview of the Android release coming later this summer.

The toolkits are intended to ease the creation of mobile applications that use services running on Windows Azure, yet do not require Apple developers to have intimate knowledge of Microsoft tools such as Visual Studio, according to the firm.

Writing on the TechNet blog, Microsoft senior director of Platform Strategy Jamin Spitzer said that mobile developers can use the cloud as a cross-platform back-end to deliver common services such as device notifications, authentication and online storage.

"At the same time, developers can maximise the performance of each mobile device by writing client-side code that exploits each platform," he said.

The Windows Azure Toolkit for iPhone 1.0 includes iPhone code libraries to interact with Windows Azure, a sample application, documentation and a Windows Azure deployment package.

Meanwhile, the Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 1.2 integrates with the Windows Azure Access Control Service, has support for Windows Azure Storage Queues and a user interface for supporting web applications.

Developers will be able to extend the functionality to the Android platform once the Windows Azure Toolkit for Android ships, Microsoft said.