Xamarin

Xamarin

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Software development
Founded	May 16, 2011 (2011-05-16)
Founder	Miguel de Icaza, Nat Friedman
Headquarters	San Francisco, California , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Miguel de Icaza (Founder), Nat Friedman (Founder)
Products	Xamarin.Android, Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Mac, Xamarin.Forms, Xamarin Test Cloud, Xamarin Studio
Owner	Microsoft
Parent	Microsoft

Xamarin is a software company headquartered in San Francisco, California and owned by Microsoft. It was established in May 2011 by the original creators of Mono. The company developed cross-platform frameworks, including Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS, which implement the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) and Common Language Specifications. These tools empower developers to create native applications for Android, iOS, and Windows while utilizing a shared C# codebase. This methodology facilitates code reuse across various platforms such as Windows, macOS, and Linux.

By April 2017, Xamarin’s offerings had been adopted by more than 1.4 million developers spanning 120 countries, highlighting its substantial impact on the cross-platform mobile development market.

On February 24, 2016, Microsoft declared its acquisition of Xamarin, incorporating the company’s technologies into its wider developer platform. Microsoft officially discontinued support for Xamarin on May 1, 2024, encouraging users to transition to .NET MAUI in alignment with its strategic business evolution.

Roots in Ximian and Mono

In 1999, Miguel de Icaza and Nat Friedman founded the company that became known as Ximian to support de Icaza’s work on the GNOME project. After Microsoft introduced the .NET Framework in 2000, de Icaza began exploring a compatible version for Linux systems. This initiative resulted in the launch of the open source Mono project on July 19, 2001. Ximian was subsequently acquired by Novell in 2003, which itself was later purchased by Attachmate in 2011.

Following Attachmate’s acquisition, substantial layoffs occurred within Novell’s workforce, including several key developers from the Mono project, casting uncertainty over its future.

Establishment of Xamarin

On May 16, 2011, Miguel de Icaza announced that development of Mono would proceed under a new entity named Xamarin, created to deliver a range of mobile development products. Several members of the original Mono team joined this new venture.

The name Xamarin is inspired by the Tamarin monkey, substituting the initial "T" with an "X," maintaining continuity with Ximian’s naming convention.

At first, Xamarin’s position was precarious due to potential conflicts with Attachmate, which owned competing commercial products and employed many former Mono developers. Legal questions concerning rights and intellectual property arose.

However, in July 2011, Novell—an Attachmate subsidiary—granted Xamarin a perpetual license covering Mono, MonoTouch, and Mono for Android. This agreement authorized Xamarin to officially manage these projects, offer technical support, and steer future advancements.

Development of Products

In May 2012, Xamarin introduced XobotOS, an experimental Android operating system implementation that utilized C# instead of Java.

By December 2012, Xamarin released Xamarin.Mac, a plugin integrated into the MonoDevelop IDE that allowed developers to create C# applications for macOS and distribute them through the App Store.

In February 2013, Xamarin unveiled version 2.0 of its platform featuring Xamarin Studio, a rebranded version of the open-source MonoDevelop IDE. It also incorporated integration with Microsoft’s Visual Studio, enabling developers to build applications for Android, iOS, and Windows within a single unified development environment.

Funding

On July 17, 2013, Xamarin secured $16 million in Series B financing, led by Lead Edge Capital and joined by earlier backers such as Charles River Ventures, Floodgate, and Ignition Partners.

Subsequently, on August 21, 2014, the company raised an additional $54 million in Series C funding—marking one of the most substantial investments for a mobile application development platform—bringing total capital raised to $82 million by that time.

Acquisition

Microsoft announced on February 24, 2016, that it had reached a definitive agreement to acquire Xamarin. Although the official terms were not publicly revealed, industry estimates placed the transaction value between $400 million and $500 million.

Microsoft subsidiary (2016–present)

During Microsoft Build 2016, it was disclosed that Xamarin’s SDK would be open-sourced and integrated as a complimentary feature within the Visual Studio integrated development environment. Users of Visual Studio Enterprise gained access to Xamarin’s advanced enterprise capabilities without additional fees. After the acquisition, Microsoft reissued Mono under the MIT License and made all Xamarin SDK components available through the .NET Foundation under the same licensing terms. This move aligned with Microsoft's broader strategy to strengthen cross-platform development offerings across its global ecosystem.

Xamarin platform

Xamarin offers an open source software platform bearing its name, with version 2.0 launched in February 2013. It extends the .NET framework by providing tools and libraries for creating applications on Android, iOS, tvOS, watchOS, macOS, and Windows (UWP), predominantly using C# within Visual Studio. This approach allows developers to maximize code reuse across platforms. Prominent enterprises such as 3M, AT&T, and HP have employed Xamarin for their app development needs. The platform integrates seamlessly with Visual Studio—the primary IDE for .NET Framework—and is also accessible to macOS users through Visual Studio for Mac. Additionally, Xamarin includes a component marketplace that facilitates the incorporation of backend services, third-party libraries, cloud integrations, and UI controls directly into mobile applications.

Xamarin.Forms

Released as part of Xamarin 3 on May 28, 2014, Xamarin.Forms provides developers with a portable set of controls that map to native UI elements on Android, iOS, and previously Windows Phone (now succeeded by UWP). It also supports experimental platforms such as Tizen (Samsung), GTK (Linux), WPF, and macOS.

The framework utilizes XAML for UI definitions and has been extended by Microsoft to work with the Universal Windows Platform. Furthermore, Microsoft promotes native mobile app development through Blazor Mobile Bindings, which enables C#, .NET, and web-based programming paradigms for Android and iOS applications.

.NET MAUI

At Microsoft Build 2020, it was announced that Xamarin.Forms would be merged into .NET 6 under the new name .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI), broadening platform support to include macOS via Mac Catalyst.

.NET MAUI officially launched on May 23, 2022. Microsoft has committed to maintaining support for Xamarin until its complete migration by May 2024. This consolidation strengthens Microsoft's cross-platform development portfolio by unifying frameworks and enhancing competitiveness in both mobile and desktop application markets.

Xamarin Test Cloud

Xamarin Test Cloud allows for testing mobile applications developed in any programming language on authentic, non-jailbroken devices through cloud-based services. It employs object-oriented UI testing techniques to replicate genuine user interactions.

Xamarin for Visual Studio

Xamarin serves as a .NET development platform that includes a suite of tools, programming languages, and libraries designed for creating a variety of applications. It provides extensions for Microsoft Visual Studio, enabling developers to construct Android, iOS, and Windows applications directly within the IDE, benefiting from features such as code completion and IntelliSense. These add-ins facilitate building, deploying, and debugging on both simulators and physical devices.

In late 2013, Xamarin and Microsoft formed a strategic alliance aimed at enhancing technical integration and broadening their combined developer community across all mobile platforms. Xamarin also supports Microsoft’s Portable Class Libraries along with C# 5.0 functionalities such as async/await. This partnership was announced by CEO and co-founder Nat Friedman during the Visual Studio 2013 launch event.

On March 31, 2016, Microsoft incorporated Xamarin’s technology into every edition of Visual Studio—including Visual Studio Community—bundling pre-installed Xamarin components like an iOS simulator. This integration strengthened Microsoft’s cross-platform development capabilities while significantly increasing Xamarin’s presence within the developer ecosystem.

Xamarin Studio

Launched in February 2013, Xamarin Studio was an independent integrated development environment (IDE) for mobile app creation on both Windows and macOS platforms. As part of Xamarin 2.0 and built upon the open source MonoDevelop project, it included features such as a debugger, C# code completion, an Android UI designer that eliminated the need for XML layout coding, and seamless integration with Xcode Interface Builder for iOS development.

While Xamarin Studio has been deprecated on Windows in favor of Xamarin for Visual Studio, it continues to evolve on macOS under the new name Visual Studio for Mac since 2016.

Xamarin.Mac

Xamarin.Mac enables developers to create applications for Apple platforms using C#, allowing up to 90% code reuse across Android, iOS, and Windows environments. This tool empowers C# programmers to develop fully native Cocoa applications tailored for macOS that can be distributed via the Mac App Store. By offering this capability, Xamarin strengthens its cross-platform development portfolio and extends its influence within Apple’s software ecosystem.

.NET Mobility Scanner

The .NET Mobility Scanner by Xamarin is a complimentary online utility designed to evaluate how much existing .NET code can be executed on Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and Windows Store platforms. This service utilizes Silverlight technology to perform its analysis.

RoboVM

In October 2015, Xamarin expanded its cross-platform mobile development toolkit by acquiring RoboVM, a Swedish Java-based developer platform. Instead of creating a Java platform from the ground up, Xamarin integrated RoboVM’s technology which allows developers to build native UI Java applications for both iOS and Android with full access to native platform APIs. RoboVM continued functioning as an independent entity within Xamarin.

However, Microsoft announced in April 2016 that it would phase out RoboVM services and terminate all subscriptions by April 30, 2017. Subsequently, BugVM, an open-source fork of RoboVM, emerged to ensure ongoing support for developers relying on this platform.

Acquisitions

• Xamarin enhanced its automated UI testing features in 2013 by acquiring the mobile app testing platform known as LessPainful.
• In 2015, Xamarin broadened its suite of cross-platform development tools through the acquisition of RoboVM, a Java application development platform, thereby reinforcing its enterprise mobile development capabilities.