Telerik has come up with an update to Icenium. The cloud-based, mobile app solution now has direct integration with Visual Studio.

This means that .NET developers can take advantage of Icenium mobile development tools from Visual Studio. In addition it provides cross-platform apps for the Android (News – Alert) and iOS operating systems.

“Once again, we’ve significantly enhanced Telerik’s Icenium to further support the emerging needs of our 1M-strong .NET (News – Alert) developer community,” Todd Anglin, executive vice president of the Cross-Platform Tools & Services unit at Telerik, said in a statement. “With the release of Telerik’s Icenium extension for Visual Studio, the .NET community can leverage Icenium to create versatile, engaging cross-platform apps without giving-up the IDE [integrated development environment] they know and love. This integration also opens the door for Icenium to support other popular development environments and workflows in the future. We want to make it as easy as possible for developers to create cross-platform mobile apps using the Icenium services and tools with the coding environments they love. This is just the beginning.”

Also, Icenium provides Windows-based and browser-based cross-platform mobile development tools, Apache Cordova services, and mobile device simulators. Icenium can also be used with any source control provider.

This particular update allows for an iOS application on Windows inside of Visual Studio.

“This is the unprecedented move to [give enterprise developers] the ability to build an iOS application on Windows inside of Visual Studio without ever owning a Mac or Apple (News – Alert) platform—and being able to deploy directly to the device,” Burke Holland, developer relations lead for cross-platform tools and services at Telerik, told SD Times.

There are other advantages, too.

“When you click that green Start button, you actually see the device with your app running inside,” Holland said. “And you can switch between Android, iPad, different form factors, and you can simulate some device events.”

Also, developers can use their infrastructure and current workflow, Holland adds.

Overall, Telerik offers software development products which are used by more than 100,000 organizations in 94 nations. Customers include more than 450 of the companies listed on the Fortune 500, colleges, governments, and non-profit organizations.