Mozilla Marketplace opens for HTML5 app submissions next week

Open-source software initiative Mozilla will open its Mozilla Marketplace app storefront for developer submissions during next week's Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain. Mozilla plans to open the store to consumers later this year.

Mozilla Marketplace enables developers to create and distribute cross-platform applications optimized for any HTML5-enabled device, regardless of operating system. Mozilla Marketplace is part of the Mozilla Web Apps platform, which includes new Mozilla-proposed web APIs that will be submitted to the W3C for standardization as well as a new digital identity system that gives users control over their content by tying apps to the consumer instead of the device or platform.

News of Mozilla Marketplace first surfaced via Mozilla's 2012 roadmap. In the document, Mozilla principal product manager Ragavan Srinivasan cites a series of challenges the current app ecosystem poses for developers, including increased investment in building, maintaining, distributing and marketing apps optimized for each native platform; loss of control over customer relationships, update frequencies and technologies; and fragmentation of the consumer base. "Mozilla believes that the web is *the* platform and the entire web should be your marketplace," Srinivasan writes.

Mozilla Marketplace also promises to bring app monetization tools. "Using our payment solution, developers will be able to enable 1-click experiences for common transactions such as buying a premium app, in-app payments, subscriptions and more," Srinivasan writes. "Users will have the ability to choose from a variety of payment methods as the year progresses."

Mozilla first announced plans for its web-based Boot to Gecko mobile operating system in mid-2011. In a post to the mozilla.dev.platform wiki page, Mozilla researcher Andreas Gal explained that the initiative will "find the gaps that keep web developers from being able to build apps that are--in every way--the equals of native apps built for the iPhone, Android and [Windows Phone]." Last week, Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich revealed via Twitter that Mozilla will announce Boot to Gecko partners during Mobile World Congress.

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