Taking Your Web App Mobile
If you or someone you know is struggling to develop iPhone apps, this recent item from TechCrunch may provide relief:
At the recent Future of Web Apps conference in Miami, Y-Combinator-backed 280 North announced Atlas, a drag-and-drop visual editor for building desktop web applications with Cappuccino, 280 North’s Javascript-based framework…Atlas can wrap up iPhone Web Apps like native applications, granting them access to a significant portion of the iPhone API and allowing them to be sold through the App Store.
This lowers the barrier of entry for iPhone development substantially, allowing those with Javascript knowledge to create fully functional applications on the platform without requiring them to learn a whole new language. The same limitations that apply to Javascript apply here, presumably – in other words, don’t expect to be throwing down ultra-rich OpenGL-based 3D games, but mid-range apps (such as Twitter clients, RSS readers, etc.) should be completely doable.
I’ve gathered the significance of this from a developer’s perspective, but I’m curious as to what the testing community thinks, and three questions immediately come to mind:
1. Will this complicate the QA process for these apps, make it easier, or have no affect at all?
2. Besides Twitter clients and RSS readers, what other types of mid-range apps should I expect to see?
3. Will the lower barrier to entry result in lower quality apps, or just the opposite?
Leave a comment and let us know what you think.
