MUMBAI, INDIA: Chennai-based start-up GoDB Tech, formerly known as Consign Technology, entered the application development platform space in 2000.

"Back then it was an emerging era of pocket size personal computing (PC) devices such as HP iPAQ, Casio Pocket Viewer (Casio PV) and Palm Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)," says Mahavir Chand, GoDB Tech's founder and director.

"Given this trend, we came out with the application development platform for mobile devices during 2001-02 . Later, we added a database support that helps enterprises to integrate its management systems such as sales and supply chain. Hence we got our first customer 3M followed by Hindustan Unilever in 2005 and others such as ICICI, Standard Chartered, Reliance Life and General Insurance," adds Chand.

But with new variety of mobile devices from Apple, Nokia, Research In Motion (RIM), Samsung and Microsoft Windows and Android based smartphones and tablets, Chand said that now the market is exploding in terms of mobile devices, communication and consumerization. "Now there's enormous opportunity in application development space and enabling it for mobile devices."  

According to Chand, developing mobile application across devices is complex and time consuming but having application development platform that supports various mobile devices allows developers to run applications seamlessly.

GoDB platform's uniqueness is that it can work on low connectivity such as EDGE or GPRS and doesn't require 3G connectivity for functioning. In fact, even with no connectivity, users can still work on the platform as it comes with internal data storage. In 2000, Intel Capital invested around $1 million in the company. But it bought back the stake after some years.