Mozilla fires up open Apps market

Mozilla has announced it will open an Apps marketplace later this year that supports any device and operating system.

Developers will be able to build one app that runs on any device so long as it is HTML5-enabled.

Mozilla is positioning its Mozilla Marketplace as the piece that closes the gap between the web and native apps.

“By building the missing pieces, Mozilla is now unlocking the potential of the Web to be the platform for creating and consuming content everywhere,” said Todd Simpson, Mozilla’s chief of innovation.

Mozilla will begin taking submissions at next week’s Mobile World Congress conference, and plans to launch the marketplace later this year, providing an alternative to the already well-established market places for Android, Apple's iOS App Store, and Microsoft's new marketplace for Windows 8 Metro apps.

The organisation late last year launched its Mozilla Labs Apps Developer Preview to showcase to developers its submission process.

“Today, apps are tied to closed ecosystems. Apps also can’t be used across all devices; data within apps is siloed and inaccessible to other apps or web services; and user choice is limited and undervalued,” said Ragavan Srinivasan, Mozilla Labs product manager late last year at the launch of the developer preview.

“In an open ecosystem, developers should have the ability to build apps using open web technologies and resources.

"They should then be able to distribute and sell those apps with the reach, flexibility and choice that the web provides.”