Widgetbox started by making widgets—little pieces of the web you could post just about anywhere.  It was liberating, and it was fun.  But it didn’t last.  Open social networks freed much of the content once reliant on widgets, and Widgetbox shifted focus to advertising, targeting businesses instead of consumers.

Now, Widgetbox is still after businesses, but with some new products that are very much like the widgets of the mobile era.  Widgetbox Mobile launches today, enabling the next generation of mobile apps.  It’s a tool that allows anyone to make their own mobile app in minutes, complete with color customization, RSS feeds, splash pages and much more.  Import content from your blog, YouTube channel, Flickr stream, and so on, aggregating your social web presence and distributing it on the iPhone and Android.

The app comes with a URL and a QR code, making it easy to share right back to your social graph, and even extending it from there.  No coding is required, but the more familiar you are with HTML 5, the more you’ll get out of Widgetbox’s new tool (though that’s not a requirement at all).
The Widgetbox mobile app maker itself is a dynamic interface with easy navigation, displaying your app as you design it.  There are three tiered plans to choose from, ranging from $25 – $100 per month, offering extra perks the higher up you go.  However, Widgetbox co-founder and CTO Giles Goodwin made it clear during a call that every plan still has a robust offering, with the majority of the features you’ll need.

One feature you do get with the higher priced plan is AdMob integration, for monetizing your app.  It’s something I felt was very necessary for plans at these prices, and it also reiterates Widgetbox’s appeal to businesses, not individual consumers.  To this end, Widgtbox has also brought Ai Diab, former vice president of product management at AdMob, to its Board of Directors.

Given my recent experience at AdMob, I am very optimistic about the potential for deep customer
engagement on mobile devices,” Diab says.. “I joined the Widgetbox Board of Directors because I believe Widgetbox is  a leader in developing mobile customer experiences that are deeply  engaging and effective, as well as being easy to develop for businesses of all types, which is a powerful value proposition in today’s mobile market.”

Looking at the quality of apps Widgetbox is creating here, as well as its business model being structured around them, it’s clear that Widgetbox will have to develop its platform further to support businesses’ ability to monetize their apps.  Goodwin says today’s launch is only the beginning of what Widgetbox has in store for its Mobile app creation tool, and I expect we’ll see some additional monetization options, such as in-app purchases, somewhere down the line.