Don't webby. Be appy.

There seems to be a proliferation of SasSy sites or tools that can turn your Web site or HTML5 content into an app (.ipa/iOS, .apk/Android):

howtogomo.com
webmobi.com
mobify.com
bakerframework.com
...

This is very cool, and provides e-publishers another opportunity for publishing content.


On a philosophical note, this move away from eyes on Web sites to mobile apps is interesting. On the Web (either envisioned by the "regal" Tim Berners-Lee or the "rogue" Ted Nelson), the idea is that of going from site to site by hyperlinks. You are one site one minute and less than a minute later you are on some site that may have little relation to the first.

An app is not like that. An app is something of a closed world. Within an app, you don't "click" on something in the app and jump from that app to another app like you do from site to site. You basically stay within that app. An ebook (.epub) on a mobile device (read within yet another app, an e-reader app), is like a closed world too.

(Of course a "Web browser" on a mobile device is an app on its own, but the tools listed above create their own apps.)