When smartphones and tablets become two of the most significant elements of the planet, you realize that segments of these mobile devices will be able to give birth to billion-dollar industries, just like mobile apps and solutions.  Just take mobile and social gaming mogul Zynga for example. It’s filed for a 1-billion IPO, leading the industry on a few different fronts. At the top of the food chain we have Google and Apple, the two lords when it comes to controlling apps development in the sphere. But, independent developers and publishers are beginning to feel the constraints of the two platform rulers. Some are already building businesses and kicking in big bucks from in-app purchases.

In their white paper, Alexander Koeppen and Michael Heinzel identified conclusive points circling the Google-Apple trap: “Other players from numerous industries, however, have suffered. If they have survived the emergence of new business models they are in many cases heavily dependent on the leaders mentioned above to market and sell their services. This way they have lost direct access to their customers and large parts of their profit margin.”

The study also made mention of the third-party marketplaces’ weaknesses: “Most often these companies do have the critical mass of customers or very specific niche customer groups to provide own mobile solutions. But they lack mobile business experience and a technological basis that makes mobile services easily available.”

Build your own solution

Mobile apps are undoubtedly one of the most important money-making bodies of Apple and Google, with Android Market and iOS being the backbone. For many reasons, developers and app publishers are starting to build their own mobile solutions beyond efforts made in app stores from the two titans.

Perhaps issues that loom around the giants that have been quite persistent could have triggered this departure in business tactics.  For Android, which has recently grabbed 20% share of the tablet market, developers are starting to rally their demand for correct revenues and increased transparency. This was fueled by inconsistent tallies in sales and receipts, an issue first reported last year.

On the other hand, Apple’s strict in-app linking policies have also strangled developers, activated an uprising for iOS as well. The mandate is aligned with the company’s goal to pull in more revenue for content purchases on its own in-app payment system.  Weeks after the announcement, Amazon and other publishers rolled over.  Amazon released the Kindle Cloud Reader, an HTML 5-powered web app.

This growing ability to break away from the shadows of leading platforms in the mobile industry will create a better competitive scene for the mobile world, and users will reap some of the benefits, gaining a variety of options around their mobile interactions. One important driver in this long-term adoption is HTML 5, a growing standard that works across platforms and promotes fluidity and independence between iOS, Android and other mobile systems.