So Google have unveiled their App Inventor, which allows users to create Android-based mobile apps using a simple drag and drop interface.
“To use App Inventor, you do not need to be a developer. App Inventor requires NO programming knowledge. This is because instead of writing code, you visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app’s behavior.”
When this same kind of idea was applied to online publishing we ended up with tens of millions of blogs and a new industry. When it was applied to web design we got businesses like SquareSpace. Audio recording: podcasts. Low cost video cameras and simple eidting software: YouTube. Print-on-demand: Blurb, Lulu and Newpaper Club.
Whenever you take something that used to required technical skill or access to expensive equipment and make it accessible to the masses, the masses seem to grab hold of it and run – creating all kinds of weird and wonderful things in the process.
App Inventor is the first big step in doing exactly this for the mobile app market (there are other DIY app tools out there but nothing with this kind of clout behind it). Expect to see two things happen:
- Individuals creating simplified, personalised apps to help solve their own daily needs or just for fun – some will break out and become hits
- New structures, like marketplaces for DIY apps, to grow up around them
- Hyper-local apps, which previously wouldn’t justify the cost of creating them, will become more common
Of course, this is really just a first tentative step and there’s a lot of ground yet to cover.
App builders will need to become even simpler and probably cross-platform. Apple will no doubt have something in the works too but the next big thing in this space may be a well-branded, well-back startup – something like a SquareSpace or possibly even an Open Source option, a WordPress for apps.
Whatever the format and whatever the timescale, it’s hard to imagine that DIY apps won’t become much more common – and that inevitably means new opportunities for creative entrepreneurs.
Subscribe for Free: RSS | EMAIL
{ 0 comments… add one now }