SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/05/13 -- Sauce Labs Inc, the leading provider of cloud-based web application testing solutions for software developers, today announced a new service, based on the open source project Appium, for automating the testing of applications for iOS devices -- namely iPhones and iPads. The new service provides a unique cloud-based, automated testing platform for both native iOS apps and mobile web hybrid apps, giving software developers much-needed capabilities for ensuring they can quickly deliver quality software to consumers.

In building Appium on Sauce, the company has contributed to the open source Appium project, based on the Node.js platform. Appium currently features broad support for native and mobile web automation on iOS, and Android support is planned. Sauce Labs believes the Appium open source project is taking the right approach because of the software's compatibility with multiple programming languages and testing frameworks, support for testing strategies that require direct access to backend resources, and the ability to automate unmodified, release-ready apps. The move signals Sauce Labs' support of the burgeoning open source developer community around Appium.

The Appium on Sauce service is available immediately for select Sauce Labs customers, with new users being added by invite only. Full general availability is expected in the coming weeks as the company scales its infrastructure.

Sauce Labs offers a cloud of browsers and platforms for automated and manual testing of web and mobile apps. The company's software-as-a-service (SaaS) application is used by some of the largest consumer and enterprise brands. The Sauce testing cloud is already used to run approximately two million tests each month, with that number continuing to grow.

Okta, a leader in enterprise cloud identity, has been an early user of the Appium on Sauce cloud. Denali Lumma, Quality Engineering Manager at Okta, said: "Appium from Sauce Labs is a major advancement in automated testing. What they've provided for native iOS test automation is familiar and straightforward, based on the WebDriver APIs. This makes writing and maintaining iOS tests extremely easy. Appium in the cloud is just in time for growing industry shifts into mobile software offerings. Sauce Labs has delivered strategically and technically; they enable our business to compete with the best in the world by providing the rock-solid, innovative infrastructure we use to ensure excellent quality with lightning fast product development."

Another early adapter of automated functional testing with Appium on Sauce is Everest, an app designed on the belief that there is no separation between creating a better self and a better world. Roderic Campbell, Senior iOS Engineer at Everest said: "I've watched Sauce Labs create great products for the web for years and have been jealous that I wasn't working on products that could utilize their experience. Now they are putting their expertise into Appium, which is perfect for mobile developers. Watching your product run through Appium on Sauce for the first time is kind of unreal. This could eliminate a lot of late nights."

"As the world becomes more mobile and online interactions increasingly move to specialized applications, it's increasingly important that these apps perform and meet consumer demands," says Adam Christian, vice president of development at Sauce Labs. "Testing these apps has been a slow and difficult process, often done manually by teams using physical devices. Automated testing enabled by Appium represents the future, and Appium written in Node.js represents the best course toward ensuring the code continues to evolve as needs change."

Sauce Labs has long been a supporter of open source projects; its core test cloud for testing web applications is based on open source Selenium. In addition, Sauce Labs is excited that Appium, originally written in Python, is moving forward in Node.js because of the vibrant community base, the potential for attracting new contributors from among the many developers who know JavaScript, and the special relevance of JavaScript as the existing primary language for iOS automation.

Additional Online Resources
Read the Sauce Labs blog post on the launch of Appium on Sauce or visit www.saucelabs.com/appium to sign up for an invite to the service.

Follow @saucelabs on Twitter: https://twitter.com/saucelabs

About Sauce Labs
Sauce Labs, the leading web application testing company, provides cloud-based testing tools that greatly increase developer productivity. Sauce Labs' automated testing service lets users run Selenium tests across multiple browsers in parallel without setting up or maintaining test infrastructure. Its manual testing service lets users interactively test their websites on more than 100 browser/OS combinations while recording screenshots and videos of bugs. To date, more than 30 million tests have run in the Sauce cloud. Sauce Labs is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For more information, visit http://saucelabs.com.

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