I just read in Website Magazine that Amazon has figured out a way to circumvent Apple’s App Store fees. It’s nothing too tricky… they’ve simply build an iPad optimized online Kindle Store. When you browse to amazon.com/iPadKindleStore from your iPad, you’ll be prompted to add the Kindle Store icon to your homescreen. It also lets you access your books via the Amazon Cloud Reader.
The part of this story that gets me excited is the fact that yet another Internet superpower is using the open web to bypass the proprietary nature of the mobile app ecosystem. I’d like to see more companies doing this. Building an app specifically for iOS or Android should be equivalent to building a website and stating that it’s “best viewed in Internet Explorer”.
What are some other examples of companies embracing the open web?