We have been waiting most of the year to hear news from Facebook about an HTML5-based Web app store that would circumvent the native application ecosystems of the Android Market and the Apple App Store. Yet, according to Facebook’s CTO, there is not going to be a central repository of HTML5 Web apps coming to the platform any time soon.
In the meantime, a Brazilian company called Movile has launched a new version of its Web app store, Zeewe 2.0, which incorporates some key HTML5 features and could provide a roadmap for U.S. developers, like Facebook, in creation of a Web app store.
Offline Caching
One of the features of HTML5 is the ability to use offline caching to create Web apps that work when you do not have an Internet connection. This is essentially what Movile has done with Zeewe 2.0. The app store will function just fine, even if your smartphone is in airplane mode.
Offline caching means that Web app downloads up to 10-times faster than the original version of the store. We have seen various U.S. developers, like Amazon and Mozilla, start implementing offline caching in their apps. The browser does not need to go back to the server for data retrieval. Currently, four main Movile partners have games that will function with the data caching aspect as well: Block Dream, Blast Effect, Checklist and Card Flip.
The faster an app store is, the more likely that users will click through to buy and app. Once a user has an app, Movile hopes that they will then use their new payments API to push users towards in-app purchases.
Carrier Billing Partnership With Zong
Movile has teamed with Zong, a payments solution that was
bought by eBay to bolster PayPal earlier this year
. Zong specializes in carrier billing and will be available in the United States and Brazil to start but Canada, Mexico, most of western Europe and India are planned in the next few months. U.S. users have a distinct distaste for carrier billing but remember that Movile is a Brazilian company and worldwide attitudes towards carrier billing are not so harsh as they are stateside.
Movile has created a roadmap that a company like Facebook should take note of. HTML5-based applications tied through carrier billing and the mobile browser. It is about as easy a formula to follow for a consumer than almost anything else in the mobile realm.
Movile head of innovation Eduardo Lins Henrique told ReadWriteWeb that almost 60% of the apps available through Zeewe are from game developers. That would mesh with what we have seen from domestic developers – the gamers are on the forefront of the HTML5 push. Henrique also said that there is an adult content section to the Zeewe store, something that most U.S. HTML5 developers will probably shy away from. Yet, do not discount the ability of the massive adult content ecosystem to push the envelope of HTML5 development.
Does Movile have the right model? How long before something similar comes from a prominent developer in the United States? Let us know in the comments.
