amCharts
| private company | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Data visualization |
| Founded 📆 | 2006 |
| Founder 👔 | Antanas Marcelionis |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | , , |
Area served 🗺️ | Worldwide |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | amcharts |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
amCharts is a private proprietorship focusing on development of mostly developer-oriented programming tools for data visualization – charts and maps. Located in Vilnius, Lithuania, the amCharts team consists of individuals living in Lithuania, Germany and the United States.
amCharts is focusing all of its development around JavaScript and related technologies. As a cross-platform standard, JavaScript is supported by the vast majority of devices and platforms – modern desktop and mobile browsers as well as legacy ones alike.[1]
History
The beginning of amCharts was in 2004, when Antanas Marcelionis, then working as a manager for a web development company, first created a version of an interactive map which then became the first version of amMap – the predecessor of the current mapping product line.[2] Being a fan of maps and traveling, he wanted to have a tool which would work like a pin-map for him. The product was created in his free time.
In 2006 Antanas left his job without any clear idea what he would do next. With the help of some friends he deepened his programming knowledge (programming was only a hobby since he knew Basic on the famous Sinclair ZX Spectrum). Doing a little of everything, he ended up creating a configurable Pie chart. It took several months to release the first version of the pie chart as a product.
The first chart was featured in several articles and people started using it. After a couple of months a line & area chart was introduced, and column and bar chart followed. amCharts started to gain popularity and recognition.[3]
Clients
The licensing and pricing structure allowed amCharts to cater to a wide majority of potential clients. Among those are Fortune 500 corporations like Chevron, Apple, AT&T, Verizon, IBM, Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Amazon.com, Comcast, Dow Chemical, Pfizer, Intel, Cisco Systems, major banks like J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, HSBC, government of the United States as well as organizations like NASA and various branches of the military along with small companies, web and application development houses and individual developers.
Dual-licensing approach
All amCharts products are available as a free download and as a commercial version available for purchase. Free versions are fully functional. The only difference between them and their commercial counterparts is that they display a small branding link. The dual-licensing approach aligns with amCharts’ philosophy of making its full-featured products available to everyone, even those who would not normally afford acquiring a commercial license.[4]
Products
Developer-oriented products
Developer products are mainly aimed at web and application developers, looking for a way to add data visualization capabilities to the products they are developing. These products require a certain degree of knowledge of web technologies to implement.
The three products in this category are:
- JavaScript Charts
- JavaScript Stock Chart
- JavaScript Maps
JavaScript charts
A programming library aimed at providing a quick way to visualize data using classic chart types like Pie, Donut, Line, Area, Column, Bar, XY, Scatter as well as more exotic types like Funnel, Bullet, Pyramid, Gauges and others.[5]
JavaScript stock chart
This product adds an additional chart type – Stock Chart. It's a powerful chart type that is meant for displaying complex date/time-based data, such as financial data. While it's primarily meant for displaying financial data, it can be used for any time-based data such as measuring equipment statistics, etc. [6]
The unique features that set this product apart are the ability to draw data from multiple data sources and compare them, dynamic data point grouping, multiple / synced chart panels, charting events, period selectors, and many more.[7] [8]
JavaScript maps
JavaScript maps allows adding interactive maps to websites and applications with just a few lines of code. Out of the box it includes various versions of World maps as well as individual maps for around 100 countries.
Besides displaying simple geo-political boundaries, it also allows placing map markers, attaching rich-text descriptions to any map object, drawing lines, creating heat maps, etc. This allows JavaScript Maps to be used as a flexible engine for any map-like interface.[9]
End-user-oriented products and services
In 2014 amCharts started broadening its focus to non-developer users by introducing its Wordpress CMS plugin as well as the Live Editor service.
Live editor
Live.amcharts.com is a free service that allows creating charts right there in the browser using live-edited or imported data. Users with no development knowledge whatsoever can create charts using pre-defined chart templates, create their own, import data and publish their charts on the web, in other websites, Facebook or other publishing platforms.[10]
Wordpress plugin
This plugin adds charting capabilities to Wordpress – the most popular web publishing platform in the World. This plugin caters to both web developers and editors lacking programming knowledge. It can be used in two ways:
- Developers/users creating chart items (posts) that can then be later inserted into the body of the page or post by any Wordpress user;
- Users can skip the process of editing the chart in Wordpress and simply use the link from the Live Editor to directly embed the chart created there.
The amCharts Wordpress plugin is available for free through the Wordpress plugin repository.[11]
Competition
One of the major competitors in the market is FusionCharts, however this market is becoming more and more competitive as new players are coming in. There are many free as well as paid data visualisation tools available online [12], such as ZingChart and LucidChart.
References
- ↑ Online Diagrams, Charts And Maps
- ↑ amCharts founder Antanas Marcelionis
- ↑ About amCharts
- ↑ Licenses Explained
- ↑ About JavaScript Charts
- ↑ Goldmine of Content Resources
- ↑ About JavaScript Stock Charts
- ↑ 43 Essential Controls for Web Applications
- ↑ About JavaScript Maps
- ↑ amCharts Live Editor
- ↑ Charts and Maps Wordpress plugin
- ↑ 75+ Tools for Visualizing your Data, CSS, Flash, jQuery, PHP
External links
This article "AmCharts" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
