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Create content-centric iPhone & iPad apps on the fly with GENWI
The iSites.us site has rebranded itself today as GENWI (the name of the parent company) and expanded to offer iPad app creation in addition to iPhone and Android apps. With a straightforward CMS engine, the service lets you create either mobile HTML5 web apps or true native apps around your content, delivering a digital magazine experience without coding or extensive development chops. The core of GENWI is a feed aggregation/cloud content tool that website owners or publishers can point at their feeds (including RSS, ATOM, iTunes, or custom XML and homegrown APIs) to automatically update content within the app. Publishers can easily categorize and reorganize the app's sections, insert custom announcement posts, permit social media sharing, add images/rich media (audio or QuickTime/MP4 video) and more. Like any good app platform, advertising services are bundled into the system. The new iPad instance provides many more visual customizations, as befits the larger real estate of the tablet apps. While the instant HTML5 apps and the native iPhone/Android apps can be completely skinned and graphically customized, the iPad GENWI apps can be rearranged and laid out in more sophisticated ways. Customers also have the option of designing a full HTML5/CSS skin from scratch and plugging it into the GENWI platform. GENWI's low-end plan charges US$99/month for the app back-end services, covering up to 100K app interactions (page views, etc.); you submit the apps through your own Apple developer account, which is a separate $99/year cost. If you want to deliver the iPad experience, though, you're looking at the $499/month Professional plan; that puts this service out of the reach of most casual publishers and hobbyists. Back in March, our colleagues at Download Squad did a full rundown on the 'Instant App' authoring within GENWI (then branded as iSites). Check it out here. Show full PR text GENWI/iSites debuts fully customizable iPad app creation and management solution GENWI enables media publishers to create and manage highly interactive, social, and real-time updated newspaper, magazine, printed promotion, and catalog apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod and Android Smart Phone Devices July 13, 2011 – Los Altos, CA – GENWI (http://genwi.com), the premier cloud-based smart phone and tablet app publishing platform, today launched its new iPad app publishing solution and an enhanced mobile Content Management Server (mCMS™). The new iPad app publishing platform offers one of the easiest and most versatile cloud-based solutions for creating iPad apps on the fly, and the service caters especially to the needs of traditional and digital media publishers, broadcasters, promoters, and catalog publishers. The new iPad solution is fully customizable and offers a tailor-made, branded experience for publishers. The unique flexible client architecture, adding new content and updates to apps in real time, helps publishers to create visually stunning and live updated media apps. Optimized templates and themes are offered to help jump-start the design process. Custom design development capability based on HTML5 and CSS is also offered as an advanced option, allowing publishers to create almost any user experience or design imaginable. Media publishers can rapdily transform a print magazine into a visually stunning and custom branded tablet app. With the new mCMS™, publishers can add content through Quickpost™ or from various sources and in numerous formats, including -- Media RSS, iTunes RSS, ATOM, XML, Restful API's, CSV, In-design, and PDF. The mCMS™ media engine will crawl, parse, analyze, and aggregate content in real time and deliver it to a wide array of mobile form factors, tailored for optimal viewing and user interaction based on the device characteristics. mCMS™ also offers the ability to curate the aggregated content, edit, and organize it for various devices. "The mCMS™ media engine has mapped over 60 million posts and 100 million images from more than 30,000 publishers who have signed up with GENWI. We are currently serving 1,500 active apps for our publishing partners on iPhone and Android smart phones, and now we are proud to expand to the fast-growing iPad market. GENWI has observed high repeat usage along with the millions of downloads and app views per month", said Rahul Patel, Co-Founder and CTO. With the mCMS™ media engine and GENWI's flexible client architecture, the flow, navigation, and content organization can be revised instantly and made immediately available to app users. Apps do no have to be resubmitted to the app stores for approval and users don't have to upgrade their apps for small changes and content updates. This allows companies to create apps on mobile devices that are much more flexible and continuously upgradeable much like a SaaS product in the web space. "The GENWI's mCMS™ combined with the flexible client architecture is a unique offering for the publishing industry to embrace the iPad and expedite the transition from printed publications and static PDF reader apps to interactive, social, and real time-updated apps" said PJ Gurumohan, Founder & CEO of GENWI. GENWI also offers several in-built monetization features such as Ad Engine and local business coupon management for media publishers. In-app subscriptions based on iTunes payment system will also be offered. The mCMS™ also offers analytics to measure the engagement of the users at various levels. Downloads, app interactions (views and shares), location analytics etc. that can be filtered by device types and time are in-built into mCMS™ dashboard. GENWI's mCMS™ and iPad app solution will be offered on a usage basis (app interactions). An iPad app, iPhone, Android, and HTML5 (iSites™) app could be developed and deployed with a limited version of mCMS™ at $500 per month based on usage. For custom mCMS™ and advanced features additional fee would be applicable. About GENWI GENWI http://genwi.com is the premier cloud-based platform for Smartphone and Tablet app publishing. GENWI currently has 1500 Apps active on its platform and growing rapidly. GENWI's unique architecture enables rapid creation and deployment of either native or HTML5 (iSites™) Apps, with virtually no programming while incorporating rich media capabilities and real-time data. The solution has comprehensive real-time analytics that provides insights into Apps usage and engagement, and Apps can also include various revenue generating capabilities for businesses like ads, coupons, in-App subscriptions etc. Founded in 2010, GENWI is a privately held firm based in Los Altos, CA. For more information, please visit www.genwi.com
Make your personal iPhone app in just 10 minutes
Have you ever secretly wished that you could have your own personal iPhone app? An app that you could give to friends, relatives, and your adoring fans? Now you can have your own iPhone (or Android, if you swing that way) app featuring all of your personal feeds from sources such as Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Posterous, Tumblr, and more. The really cool thing is that it's not going to take you much time, nor will you need to learn how to program. Through a new service called iSites, you can take all of your life feeds and have an iPhone app created just for you. The cost? Only US$25. If you think that your hordes of faithful followers are going to download and use the app, you can spend another $99 to integrate AdMob ads into your personal app, meaning that you might be able to become rich (you're already famous, right?) beyond your wildest dreams by giving away your app in the App Store. Everything about the iSites app you create is customizable; the feeds that make up the content (see photo above), the colors, even your icon and store banner. Anyone using your app can easily share an article with others via Twitter, Facebook, or email, and the app has support for video, image thumbnails, and the ability to mark a post as a favorite. I'm not sure that I'm ready to bore the world with my personal iPhone app, but when I finally get to that point, I'll probably use iSites to create it. [via Mashable]
