MobUI acquires Action Engine to speed app development

Mobile application development startup MobUI today announced its acquisition of Action Engine, an on-device portal (ODP) company, as well as a round of funding led by Latin American wireless application services provider GlobalNET Mobile Solutions. Moving away from Action Engine’s ODP focus, the company will develop software for all operating systems, focusing on Apple’s iPhone at launch.

The company’s goal is to speed the time to market for premium iPhone, mobile Web and downloadable apps. Breaking down its large projects into separate micro-efforts, MobUI can shorten the mobile development cycle and provide feedback throughout the process, according to CEO and founder John Burry. At launch, MobUI has three consumer brands signed up as customers, but the company won’t release names until their mobile apps are commercially deployed. Social interaction with an advertising component will be one area MobUI’s customers are focused on, Burry said, adding that they won’t be creating an ODP for the sake of it, as often was the case with Action Engine. Rather, MobUI’s focus is on a consumer experience built around the end user.

ODPs provide one platform for content companies to launch ad-supported mobile apps. With the improvements in user experience and Web browsing on mobile, however, portals as an alternative have become less necessary. As such, MobUI is ditching Action Engine’s “the on-device portal company” tag line and won’t market itself as an ODP company in any way, according to MobUI founder and CEO John Burry.

“We are not focusing ourselves as an ODP company,” Burry said. “We are not advertising ourselves or referring to ourselves as the ODP company or even an ODP company. MobUI is focused on optimizing mobile experiences for media brands and choosing the right tool for the specific need our customers have. With Action Engine, we have a great ODP with social networking capabilities and ad capabilities built in. All of that are tools in our toolbox we’ve acquired and in most cases, industry leading tools. However, we don’t have to use those tools.”

Burry’s sentiments come from his experiences as the former Action Engine chief architect. Along with new CTO Brandon Albers, a former senior developer at Action Engine, Burry left the company to form MobUI at the end of June. After struggling financially, Action Engine officially laid off the entirety of its staff at the end of August, seemingly in preparation to be sold. MobUI has hired nine of Action Engine’s 120 employees.