Democratization of the App

So, app stores are no longer a new technology. Apple’s App Store and the Android Market opened for business in 2008. They’ve proven to be cash cows for organizations and developers alike.

I was listening to both the this is my next podcast (from this is my next) and Windows Weekly (a great podcast on the TWiT network) where they both discussed new Nokia devices. One of these devices was beautiful, and run by MeeGo.

The new MeeGo phone looks awesome. But, unfortunately, MeeGo has already been deprecated by Nokia in favor of Windows Phone 7. Dead on arrival. So it will have no good apps. A similar situation with the Palm OS. There are very few good apps on smaller platforms for obvious reasons. Plus, OS developers tightly control the app store experience, and at a whim, can jack up their cut of the proceeds or render your app useless through rejection.

This got me thinking. Why not take the Java strategy of “Write once, run anywhere” to the app ecosystem? It benefits developers and consumers.

Consumers can buy any device they like, provided the OSes are HTML5 compliant.
Developers can write once and deploy anywhere. Both won’t be forced to remain inside the restrictive – even manipulative – silo’d ecosystems of Apple, Android, or Windows Phone 7.

I envision app stores based entirely on the web, allowing access from any device with any OS the monetization of apps. Provided HTML5 includes standardized APIs for advanced device access, of course.

Let me be sure to say that HTML5 has been made out in the tech media to be the savior of the Web. It is still in its infancy. While it still lacks in features that make it usable by content providers — like no ad serving for videos and digital rights concerns — it has been shown that web apps can match the functionality of native apps 70% of the time. With the maturation of graphics standards like WebGL and advanced APIs, that reach could be 95%. WebGL is particularly interesting because it allows scripts – not compiled code – to access the raw graphics processing power of the GPU.

Anyway,

What improvements need to be made to HTML5:
1) Standardized APIs for access to camera, gyroscope, and other hardware components on mobile devices.
2) Safety concerns around WebGL should be addressed.
What developers need to do:
1) Make Javascript libraries for DRM and ad serving for videos. (Developers: You could make a mint selling this to content providers.)
2) Make compelling web apps. If Angry Birds can make a carbon copy of a native app, anyone can.
What web app stores need to do:
1) Provide organizations and developers the ability to monetize web apps.
2) Curate. People enjoy a human touch. Visibility is a major problem in any app store. Today’s app stores are warehouses, not museums.
What mobile OSes need to do:
1) Adhere strongly to HTML5 standards. Many OSes do at the moment, and support for full HTML5 APIs will increase over the coming months.
2) Make the hardware competitive again. You can keep selling media, etc., but hardware should be the main focus. Apps are no longer a killer feature — they are just as commonplace as the web now.

Those are no easy tasks, but many of them are being undertaken.

This will upset the current app ecosystems, but who’s to say it would be a bad thing? Democratization of media through social networking has proven to be good. Why not democratization of the app?