AppThwack announced this morning it was acquired by Amazon Web Services to help developers test their phone apps in the cloud.
In an announcement on its website, the Portland-based company told customers there’s no need to worry about its services disappearing as a result of the sale. “We launched AWS Device Farm – a new service that will help you improve the quality of your apps by testing them against real phones and tablets in the AWS Cloud.”
However, the AppThwack service will be shutting down on Sept. 1, so customers will have to transition to AWS Device Farm before then. The company promises it takes only a few minutes, and that when you do make the move, you’ll have access to an improved service with a larger collection of real devices.
Amazon announced the Device Farm last week, but did not mention its involvement with AppThwack. It said that the farm comes with a free trial of 250 device minutes, and then after that you are charged 17 cents a minute. Unlimited testing tops out at $250 a month per device.
AppThwack was founded in March 2012 by Trent Peterson and Pawel Wojnarowicz, who spent seven years together at Intel leading the design, development, and deployment of an automation framework used for testing all of Intel’s wireless products.
Two years ago, it announced a partnership with In-Q-Tel, an independent, non-profit organization which invests in companies that serve the interests of the U.S. Intelligence Community. It’s also a graduate of the Portland Seed Fund and Portland Incubator Experiment.
The acquisition was first reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal.
