Developer tools company Appcelerator acquired API management company Singly, in a move it said “bolsters Appcelerator’s capabilities for opening data sources to make them readily consumable by mobile apps running on any device”.

The buyer said that to access data and services, mobile apps need a different programming interface to traditional web apps. Mobile APIs need to deliver content optimised for consumption on smaller screens, and must translate traditional interface formats such as XML “into modern ones such as JSON”, with battery and bandwidth considerations also driving the need for rate limiting.

“With Singly’s API integration management joined to the Appcelerator product line, customers can much more easily unlock public and enterprise data sources, making available a rich layer of services on which to build transformative native apps that run on any device,” Jeff Haynie, CEO of Appcelerator, said.

Singly’s DataFabric product “normalises data on behalf of the apps it serves”, Appcelerator said, functioning as an API abstraction layer for APIs including LinkedIn, Yammer, PayPal, DropBox, Google Calendar, Facebook, Twitter, “and many others”.

This abstraction layer also shields developers from having to modifiy apps every time something changes in one of the underlying APIs.

Singly provides “a palette of pre-built API integrations”, and will soon release an SDK to enable developers to build their own.

Appcelerator intends to build Singly capabilities into its product suite “by early 2014”, including its Titanium open source environment adopted by nearly 500,000 mobile developers.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.