If you're going to undertake a rebranding exercise, best hold it back until you have something new to offer.

That's exactly what Ideaworks Labs – the company behind cross platform middleware tool Airplay SDK – has done, rebranding both the company itself and its SDK as Marmalade.

The fresh name has been delivered just as the company launches Marmalade 5.0 – its updated SDK designed to allow studios to write apps in standard C++ before rolling them out as native releases across smartphone platforms.

Sweet and sticky

The company is still part of the Ideaworks3D family, but its entire operation will now operate under the Marmalade name.

It's no empty exercise, either: Marmalade 5.0 comes complete with fresh features, such as an Extensions Development Kit (EDK) designed to allow access native APIs on iOS and Android. As a result, apps powered by Marmalade can include features such as multi-threading.

Its essence is, using cross-platform tools doesn't mean sacrificing powerful features specific to individual operating systems.

Playing with platforms

"The market adoption of multiple device formats and operating systems is huge, and the need for developers to have their applications on many of them is now a reality," said Ideaworks3D CEO Niall Murphy.

"With Marmalade, developers don’t have to choose between performance and portability.

"It's hugely exciting to see the great games, augmented reality and other location-based apps being created with Marmalade and deployed simultaneously to iOS, Android and beyond."

Marmalade works across iOS, Android, webOS, bada and, thanks to a deal signed with RIM back in March, PlayBook OS. Further details on the updated SDK can be found on the firm's relaunched website.