Tools maker Kendo UI launched a new version of its HTML5 and JavaScript developer framework, with the addition of several new mobile-specific features.

The updated version includes an API for handling touch gestures as well as a selection of mobile themes that developers can choose to use.

“Mobile is becoming a key area to address,”  Todd Anglin, VP for HTML5, web and mobile tools at Kendo UI's parent Telerik, told Mobile Apps Briefing.

Anglin said Kendo UI is intended to end the “Frankenstein style of development” seen with native apps, which need to be tweaked for different platforms. The framework is aimed at making HTML5-based apps adapt to different form factors and software while behaving in a similar way to native apps.

“We want to give developers the ability to very easily create an app and adapt it to whatever platform it is running on,” Anglin said.

The update also adds tools that enable developers to make their apps enterprise-ready, including new financial charts and the ability to pan, zoom and manipulate visual data within the Kendo UI DataViz framework.

Accessibility has also been improved with additions for the visually impaired and other assistive technology that meet W3C standards for the web.

Server wrappers for Java developers have also been added, allowing them to use existing server-side skills to build HTML5-based apps.

Anglin said the updates to the Kendo UI technology should make more developers “get off the fence” when it comes to HTML5 development. “There is a huge amount of momentum in HTML5 at the moment,” he said.

The technology is available in beta form from today with general availability pencilled in for the beginning of 2013.