Microsoft Buys HockeyApp for Mobile Development Services

Microsoft (MSFT) has bought HockeyApp, a three-year old, Stuttgart, Germany-based provider of services and tools to help Android, iOS and Windows Phone developers build, distribute, and beta test mobile applications.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed by either party. HockeyApp’s developer services, including live crash reports, user feedback, new tester recruitment and test coverage analysis, are available to new and existing developer customers immediately.

Microsoft, which is an existing HockeyApp customer, plans to integrate HockeyApp into the Application Insights service in Visual Studio Online to expand support for iOS and Android, said S. Somasegar, Microsoft Developer Division corporate vice president responsible for developer tools and services, in a blog post.

The Application Insights service offers a comprehensive view of application usage, availability and performance across client and server/cloud application components.

“As mobile, cloud, and DevOps continue to transform the application development landscape, we are bringing together the most complete set of tools and services for highly productive mobile-first, cloud-first development, from cross-platform mobile development tools in Visual Studio to Application Insights in Visual Studio Online,” wrote Somasegar, a 25-year Microsoft veteran.

“Today I’m pleased to announce that we have acquired HockeyApp, a class leading service for mobile crash analytics and app distribution for developers building apps on iOS, Android and Windows Phone,” he said.

HockeyApp chief executive Thomas Dohmke and principals Stefan Haubold, Andreas Linde and Michael Simmons, collectively wrote in a blog post that their plan when they founded the company was to “always stay indie. In fact, we initially created HockeyApp as a developer tool for our own apps. We wanted a powerful and flexible way to improve our apps and with a lot of digging and perseverance, we found a way to do it.”

Microsoft’s near limitless resources apparently was a deciding factor in convincing HockeyApp to change its status from an independent company.

“We saw the potential of the added abilities and resources of Microsoft to make our platform even better. It may sound cliché, but it really does feel like a match made in heaven,” the HockeyApp team said.

Somasegar said Microsoft will announce in the next few months new iOS and Android software development kits (SDKs) for Application Insights based on HockeyApp’s features.

“Integrating HockeyApp crash reports with Application Insights usage analytics will extend device support for Application Insights across all major mobile platforms and make application analytics an ambient part of the application development cycle with support for all tiers of a modern mobile first, cloud first solution,” he said.