OnSwipe: Web Content on Tablets That Behaves Like an App

Up to this point, content intended primarily for consumption on a tablet device would be created for the Apple iPad and use the App Store for distribution to end users. Self-executing apps such as games are ideal for that format. But such apps are less than ideal for content distribution, the founders of OnSwipe argue.

"With HTML5, however, content publishers can have the swipe features, the page movement, the rich graphics and all the other things that apps provide, and still be open and easily portable to other tablets or platforms," says co-founder Jason Baptiste.

OnSwipe gives content publishers the ability to mimic many of the user interface and features that apps provide, but on the open web. That promises a way of authoring that works for web, tablet and small-screen devices.

At first, the company figured it would just license its software platform to publishers who wanted to create a quick app-like experience for the iPad. “But that would just be a services business, not a really big company,” says Baptiste. “Not that that’s bad, but we wanted to do something really big — there’s so much potential there. So we decided to give the software away, and have as many people publish in an infinitely customizable way, and we would build a thread that pulls them all together.”

The idea now, Baptiste says, is to create a kind of networked layer on top of the OnSwipe publishing tools, to turn those tools into more of an ecosystem.

OnSwipe Wants to Reinvent Content for Tablets