Mozilla has unveiled its view on the future of web apps, proposing an open, cross-browser system.
The Firefox maker first announced its plans for an app system in May, just as Google was revealing its Chrome web store, which was opened up to developers in August.
The Mozilla system won’t be limited to Firefox, but will work on any modern desktop or mobile browser – Firefox 3.6 and above, Firefox Mobile, IE8, Chrome 6, Safari 5, Opera 10 and any WebKit mobile systems.
“The open web is a great platform for rich applications,” said Mozilla chief Jay Sullivan in a blog post. “It would be even better if it had additional capabilities to ease discovery, acquisition, installation and use of apps, while also enabling monetisation for developers.”
According to Mozilla, apps will be developed using existing web technologies, such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and will be available for free or for a fee. Once they’re paid for, apps should be portable across platforms, so users won’t have to buy multiple versions for different browsers.
Distribution will either be direct from developers or via app stores – which anyone can create. Mozilla’s own app store is called AppMonkey.
Applications will be launched and managed via an app dashboard, created in HTML5 – the app dashboard can be tried out here.
Mozilla said existing web apps will easily slot into the system by adding a few lines into their metadata.
Watch the following Mozilla video for more:
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