The new Sweb Apps service from Sweb Development turns anyone into an iPhone app builder. No technical expertise is necessary - it's as easy as following a set of menu prompts.
Sweb, based in San Antonio, Texas, plans to launch app builders next year for other mobile platforms including Android, Blackberry and Palm Pre.
Sweb Apps mainly targets small to medium-sized businesses (SMMEs) without an in-house or on-call engineering team that can build mobile apps. Business owners can create iPhone apps themselves in as little as five minutes on the Sweb Apps website.
On the site you simply click the "Start Building" button to begin creating your own iPhone application. It takes only six steps to complete your app, and Sweb will submit it to the Apple App Store for you.
The build menu creates apps for six general business and organisational areas - Restaurant, Retail Store, Business, Non-Profit, Government, Education and Entertainment. An additional Customization category lets you design an app that doesn't fit into the six listed categories.
You can add buttons in each category. For example, in the "Restaurant" category, you can add "Menu," "Reservations," "Map" and so on. Additional Facebook and Twitter buttons allow you to direct customers to your Facebook and Twitter profiles.
Apps built with Sweb include real-time updates through the company's hosted contents management system (CMS). This gets around the need to wait for Apple to approve app updates. This feature allows a business to promote one-time events, specials, coupons, sales or anything else that would be offered for a limited time.
The company plans to introduce more features into the service, including premium buttons, Flash-based content, in-app advertising opportunities and more.
Magaly Chocano, CEO of Sweb Development, says: "Currently the only time we use the GPS is for the maps button. At the moment we don't integrate location awareness for full location-based services but we are definitely considering this option seriously for the near future."
