An alternative to apps in the App Store no comments
Say you are a seller of ebooks or other content. You would like to put your ereading or other app in the App Store to sell your content. Unfortunately, after Apple rakes its 30 percent cut off the top there would be no profit left for you. So what else can you do?
WebApps are an alternative, and app developer services and consulting firm appMobi is at Mobile World Congress promoting a new WebApp development technology that might make for a nice alternative distribution channel to the App Store.
The company has announced a new Web browser technology, dubbed MobiUs, that enables developers to create more powerful WebApps that provide even more functionality than a native app. The WebApp and content can be delivered via website downloads and other channels without involving the App Store.
For the user, the MobiUS WebApp based application would be like using a bookmarked website. The WebApp can be cached and then run without internet access. I expect this is one of the “other avenues” that Sony is exploring after being rejected from the App Store.
This is a really long press release; if you want to see more than the extracts below you can see the whole release here.
appMobi® (www.appmobi.com) today unveiled MobiUs™ – the first-of-its-kind mobile Web browser technology that allows developers to create Web applications – or WebApps – that exceed the functionality possible with native apps, putting the entire World Wide Web on equal footing with app stores as the distribution channel for discovering, downloading and interacting with mobile apps.
Many developers and publishers are already using standards-based Web programming languages like HTML5, JavaScript and CSS to create feature-rich cross-platform mobile applications. With MobiUs, these apps run within the open-specifications MobiUs Web browser that also utilizes native smartphone and tablet features, without requiring the compiled binary files typical of downloadable native mobile apps. This combination delivers the best of both the mobile Web and native app worlds in a single application. At last, fully-featured WebApps can be distributed through any channel developers and publishers choose – including website downloads – avoiding the often steep fees and content approval processes required by traditional app stores.
"The mobile app market is gigantic, with several estimates for 2011 indicating that mobile apps will generate more than $15 billion in revenue this year," said Sam Abadir, chief technology officer of appMobi. "Imagine the business dynamics of just one segment, for example the eBook market. Publishers and bookstores make no money on their eReader apps; they make their money on the sales of eBooks. But with app stores requiring a 30 percent cut of ebook sales revenue, this fee structure ultimately means less choice and higher prices for consumers. The app store may even lock these businesses into delivering content to just a single device or operating system. Using MobiUs, eBook companies can easily create an off-line capable WebApp eReader to deliver their content securely to the devices and platforms of their choosing without a 30 percent fee that might make their business model infeasible and kill an otherwise cherished source of content on mobile devices."
Until MobiUs, WebApps have been unable to utilize device hardware and storage features. The MobiUs WebApp browser technology changes the game. MobiUs is a mobile Web browser reference implementation that harnesses the power of HTML5 and enables Web browsers to cache and run fully-featured Web applications on smartphones and tablets with the same ability to utilize device hardware and storage features previously only possible with native apps. With MobiUs, even mobile websites can gain native app functionality.
