Open-source software project Mozilla is planning an app store that it hopes will be more open and flexible than current rivals running today. “It’s important for the future to see the positive characteristics of apps and app stores integrated with the great traits of the Web,” says the organisation in a newly-published report on its future plans. An app store is one of the three areas it highlights for future development. Mozilla describes its vision of an app store as an Open Web App ecosystem.

While acknowledging the benefits of app stores, the new plan is also critical of existing incarnations: “the current app model also has traits that threaten some of the characteristics that have made the web so vibrant a platform, particularly in the mobile space”. Apps are often limited to specific devices and platforms, points out Mozilla. The information created by users within an application, stays in that application. “One doesn’t join a unified whole as one can with the Web. App-related information isn’t generally linkable or findable,” it says. Developers also lack the freedom of movement and often need permission from gatekeepers such as mobile operators, handset vendors or store owner before reaching a user. These factors have all acted as motives for Mozilla to take a stand. It first announced its plans for an open web-based store in late May. Now there is further confirmation that it is definitely going ahead.