Mozilla Admits That It’s Working On App Store
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Say you’re a company that activates in the web, computer or electronics field of industry. Knowing what you know now about consumer’s wants and market trends, what would your next offering be? First answer is generally: release a tablet computer and try to conquer as much market share as humanly possible. The next answer could be : open up and application store and try to snag some of those tablet and smartphone handling, application enthusiastic users that are currently shopping apps online through Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market place.
Amazon has already announced its intentions of opening up an app store. Next on the list is Mozilla who’s also hoping to change the way app stores work. Last week the company published a report called “State of Mozilla” which was meant to make Mozilla’s plans for the future public. While an Android version of the Firefox web browser is already on the organization’s to-do list and should hit the market in a few months from now, we’re more interested in another one of Mozilla’s projects called “Open Web App ecosystem” or what PCWorld describes as a platform-independent app store.
As Mozilla explains in its report, “The current app model has traits that threaten some of the characteristics that have made the Web so vibrant a platform, particularly in the mobile space.” Summing things up, this means that apps are designed to be device and platform specific. When a developer starts working on an app for the iPhone and a certain version of the iOS and finishes it, that app will be restricted to the platform and perhaps even the device in question. There’s no way Android users will ever get to try out the same up unless the same developer works on a version for Google’s operating system. That basically means that information created in an app is stuck on that app and/or platform. This is completely different from the experience the web provides where most content will work for everyone, regardless of the operating system they’re using.
To work around these problems, Mozilla designed a prototype of an Open Web App ecosystem and was even so kind as to provide a YouTube Video to explain things better. You can find the video embedded above and are encouraged to take a quick look at it. The company’s prototype includes a system design, technical documentation and examples of what this type of system would look like or work like.
The open web apps Mozilla is talking about would be built using HTML/CSS/JavaScript and work on computers and mobile phones at the same time. They’d have the same fun factor and characteristics users generally look for in an app but they’d offer developers open and flexible distribution options, as the company explains in a blog post. So what would an Open Web App Store be like, really? Apparently a store of that type would make sure that the distribution of apps would work across all modern browsers (including the ones on mobile devices) and respect individual privacy by avoiding to track individual user behavior beyond what’s strictly necessary for “distribution and fulfillment”. Furthermore, the app store would be open and accessible for all app developers and users. We’re looking forward to seeing Mozilla’s store released as soon as possible. It’s not that there aren’t enough app stores on the market already. Apple has the App Store, Google and multiple smartphone manufacturers share Android Market, Amazon will built its own apps store while Microsoft and RIM each have a store for their own mobile platform. This list will be completed with several more companies soon enough and stores aren’t just restricted to mobile apps. What’s so interesting about Mozilla’s project is that it promises to base itself of openness and equality between platforms. All users of all types of devices should be able to go online, browse through a store and download apps. They shouldn’t have to wait for developers to come up with apps for their own device even if people that own an Android/iOS or any other device have already downloaded that app for their device many months ago.
In the same blog post Mozilla also took some time to explain what open web apps would work like. They could be “installed” to a dashboard within a mobile or desktop web browser. Once a user would purchase an app for one browser, he’d be able to use the app in other browsers and across several desktop and mobile platforms without having to purchase the app again. Developers would also be able to distribute their creations directly to users without having to rely on any “gatekeeper”. Sure, this apps store seems a bit futuristic, but we’d definitely love to see it become reality in the following years.11
