PowerApps Adds Features, Supports Dynamics 365

• A new PowerApps Studio for the Web, which will replace the Windows-based version, is available for production use.
• PowerApps is receiving new programming capabilities and a new data-driven application style.
• Dynamics 365 will adopt PowerApps as a customization engine.
• Licensing per user could be expensive and may keep some from using PowerApps in production.

PowerApps is a graphical application development environment that lets users with all levels of programming expertise create Azure-hosted applications that can present data for viewing and editing. Sample applications perform tasks such as budget tracking and cost estimation. Several recent announcements could position PowerApps as a standard for the creation of simple line-of-business applications as well as the preferred customization engine for SharePoint Online, where it succeeds the deprecated InfoPath, and for Dynamics 365.

Developers can create new applications through the PowerApps Studio designer, currently available in Windows desktop and Web versions. Users who are not licensed for PowerApps development can still run the resulting stand-alone applications through a mobile application that’s available for Android and iOS, or through a Web browser.