Microsoft acquires Xamarin, eases cross-platform app development

A not unexpected announced confirmed that Microsoft has acquired Xamarin, reports ArsTechnica. That name won't ring any bells outside of developer circles, suffice to say that this is big news in the right circles.Xamarin is a company with a bit of a history. They started off trying to create a version of .NET that was truly cross-platform. The open-source version that they were working on, called Mono, was meant to do exactly that. It was only later on, with Microsoft open-sourcing chunks of .NET, that Xamarin could really focus on building the tools and code that developers would need for cross-platform coding.Microsoft partnered with Xamarin in November and had been working with them to offer a cross-platform development tool that would take advantage offer .NET framework. Programmers would be able to use C# and easily develop cross-platform apps."This acquisition is a new beginning for Xamarin—the company and its products—and is an opportunity to help many, many more developers build great apps.", says Nat Friedman, co-founder of Xamarin.