Recently Microsoft has been pushing mobile developers towards its Azure cloud offering for the creation of mobile apps. This week they released new software development kits (SDKs) for Android, iOS and Windows Phone, positioning Azure as a cloud computing service that cuts across the major mobile platforms.
One example company that Microsoft is proud of is American Airlines, as they are using the Azure toolkits to provide access to real-time flight statistics, including flight status, gate changes and baggage claim info. The push notification they are using can be problematic for some developers to integrate into a mobile app, and Microsoft is pushing Azure as an easier way of handling those problems.