Mozilla Marketplace Opening To Developers Next Week

Mozilla has announced that the new Mozilla Marketplace will be open for developers beginning at this year’s Mobile World Congress. Developers can begin submitting apps in a wide variety of categories at the conference next week.

The Mozilla Marketplace is intended to be a completely platform-independent app store. All apps will be HTML5 web apps, and as such will work on any device – mobile, desktop, or otherwise – with an HTML5-capable browser. The program’s goal is to close the gap between the kind of native apps – like those found in Apple’s App Store or the Android App Market – and web-based HTML5 apps.

The web-based nature of the platform promises users and developers alike a much smoother and simpler development and deployment process. Web apps eliminate the developer’s need to worry about coding for separate platforms, and the users need to worry about whether a certain app is available for their phone or computer’s operating system.

Apps in the Mozilla Marketplace will come in a wide variety of categories, including games, productivity, media, and music apps. While the Marketplace will be open to developers next week at the Mobile World Congress, it will not launch for consumers until later this year. Look for an update to Mozilla’s Firefox browser sometime in the coming months that will enable access to the Marketplace.

What do you think of the Mozilla Marketplace? Can web apps really compete with platform-native apps like the ones you find in the iOS App Store or the Android App Market? Tell us what you think in the comments.