Just so it's clear, Miguel de Icaza confirmed via Twitter that this will work with applications built outside of the Xamarin toolchain.

https://twitter.com/migueldeicaza/status/324188860449968128

Xamarin Test Cloud is not limited to c#. Will work with Objective-C, RubyMotion, Java apps too.

It would do them well to look into connecting their stuff into Selenium Grid like saucelabs.com. I'm currently using appdriver[1] for android and appium[2] for iOS. Both communicate with SeleniumGrid which I find nice for parallel testing and the ability to use any modern computer language since Selenium's API is generally well supported across languages.

1.https://github.com/nicegraham/appdriver

2.https://github.com/appium/appium

+1 on appium support (disclaimer: I'm an appium contributor). Shouldn't be too hard for them to add since it supports real devices. Opens up the door to Selenium library support and compatibility, which would be a huge win IMO.

Why would they do that when the build a C# toolset for developing cross platform apps?

This is meant to expand the ability of MS developers to build cross platform apps. See it in that light and C# makes sense.

Oh. Hmm... well, the selenium framework is still very good. I still recommend they support it. But if their target costumers are only Microsoft stack devs then.... I have no comment.

I didn't mean it negatively, but their primary tool is a C# cross platform app builder which compiles to native code. They are a C# shop and are building products (including this new service they just bought) that make sense for their primary users. C# developers (theoretically also Linux devs running Mono).

Oh wow, I didn't know about Mono on linux. Very interesting! http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page

I'd suggest throwing /yr on your pricing page for each plan. I noticed it says "Annual pricing" above the plans - But users tend to be drawn directly to the numbers; I skipped over it originally.

Same here. I spent several minutes in awe at the audacity to charge $999 per platform per developer per month for this.

Are you sure the pricing is for the Testcloud or for the Xamarin development tools? I am confident that it is for the latter and the Testcloud is still in beta. Hopefully pricing released soon.

I have been using www.AppThwack.com and have been very happy with them. The basic package I use includes unlimited use of 10 devices for $29/mo.

*I am not in any way affiliated with AppThwack, just a happy customer and want to see them do well.

Thanks! Glad to help. Definitely exciting to see some new competition in this space (or in this case, old competition getting refreshed).

(I'm a founder at AppThwack)

Oh nice, looks like it will be able to run Calabash features. I was _just_ playing around with those today, how serendipitous.

Price compared to testdroid?