Mozilla Marketplace Opening Up Web App Developer Hub

Firefox definitely has a ton of competition these days, but there's no question that the browser has largely taken the world by storm. It's up there with IE, Safari and Chrome, and it's one of the most flexible platforms available for those who just love add-ins with their browser. Mozilla, the parent company, knows as much, and this week they are opening up an avenue for developers to submit Web apps at Mobile World Congress. By building on open Web technologies like HTML5 and Mozilla-proposed APIs, the Mozilla Marketplace will enable developers to write one app that runs across devices and platforms. As part of Mozilla's mission to keep the Web open and put people in control of their Web experience, users can buy apps once and use it on any HTML5-enabled device.

"The Web is the largest platform in the world. We are enabling the Web to be the marketplace, giving developers the opportunity to play on the biggest playing field imaginable," said Todd Simpson, Mozilla's Chief of Innovation. "By building the missing pieces, Mozilla is now unlocking the potential of the Web to be the platform for creating and consuming content everywhere."


The Mozilla Web Apps platform gives content owners, operators and service providers an unprecedented direct connection to their customers and limitless possibilities for consumer interaction and customized experiences, while also enjoying open and flexible billing options. What's more, the "write once, deploy everywhere" nature of the platform will massively reduce the cost of creating, versioning and maintaining applications, enabling a truly open, standards-based Web that advances opportunity and innovation for all.

Web apps have largely been overshadowed by pure apps built specifically for platforms, but it's easy to see that web apps are more flexible; so long as you have a browser, you're in. We'll be eager to see who jumps out to applaud this new effort at MWC, and hopefully we'll have some example apps online soon.