QT Group launches platform to build digital applications

Built on Qt Framework, Qt Accelerate provides users with ready-to-deploy, industry-grade templates for software-defined products whose look, feel, and functionality can be easily customised. This allows organisations of all sizes a quick and cost-effective start on digital product development, regardless of time constraints or expertise in coding, hardware, and design.

Within an intuitive development platform, users can select packages of pre-designed, quality-assured, and industry-tailored software templates. Users can then customise UI/UX components to suit branding needs and instantly deploy across a wide range of supported entry-level and premium hardware with little to no custom code. Qt Accelerate is ideal for organisations needing to quickly convey proof-of-concepts or products for faster time-to-market. Products can even be tested in the cloud without hardware.  

“Qt Accelerate is about empowering creators to turn ideas into innovative products in days, no matter the time or resource constraints,” says Petteri Holländer, Senior Vice President, Ventures, Qt Group. “Sometimes you need a quick start, whether you’re a large enterprise or a startup, since building a software-defined product from scratch can be an involved process. It takes coding, designing, deciding which software and hardware to use, etc. With Qt Accelerate, you don’t have to start from scratch or hire a full engineering team before you have a working product to trial. You get a starting point that’s 90% complete and risk-free because it’s quality-assured from the ground up. After just one week of customisation, you are easily looking at a version 1.0 product launch.” 

No prior knowledge of Qt Framework is required for Qt Accelerate and the templates enjoy the same flexibility, stability, performance, and quality as Qt Framework – they can be expanded upon and scaled to other devices. Qt Accelerate also supports extensions for users to enrich products with companion apps, real-time analytics, over-the-air updates, and more. The template solutions are developed with quality assurance in mind and with consideration for the requirements of the Cyber Resilience Act, enabling Qt Accelerate and its customers to work towards building compliant and reliable devices.

The solution has already been trialled by various mobility customers, such as electric vehicles company Clean Motion and electric hydrofoiling boat manufacturer Foilone.

“We built our first HMI for our EV with an off-the-shelf platform offering basic functionality but soon realised we had no control over UX, layout, or design. We wanted a clean Nordic design, but we needed to move the project forward quickly,” said William Collings, CTO, Clean Motion. “Qt Accelerate made it possible to create a stylish and functional HMI within our system. We set up a one-week boot camp with Qt to create our HMI based on Qt Accelerate’s templates. Within a week, we hadn’t just designed the UI/UX but already had a stable system deployed and integrated within our vehicle.”

The templates and base functionality in Qt Accelerate allow us to quickly tweak and iterate. It’s a ready-made backbone that can be customised to match our needs,” added Mathias Heinonen, CEO, Foilone. “We don’t have any user interface experience in-house, so having a partner who could bring us a ready plan, take our feedback, and implement it so seamlessly without compromising was incredibly valuable."