Ever use a mobile web application and suddenly lose your cell connection? That’s happened to me many times. If you’ve shared my pain, you’ll be excited to know that we’ve launched Google Gears for mobile, which lets users access Gears-enabled mobile web apps offline

Google Gears – which brings an offline dimension to online applications – has gone mobile.  This could become a very big deal in the world of mobile applications, for a number of reasons.   Michael Mace recently put forward the notion that ‘native’ mobile apps are dying, and that web apps are the way forward – well, Google Gears certainly offers some potential for web apps to gain ground on local apps in some ways.  In launching Google Gears Mobile, Google emphasizes one of the same problems facing mobile software publishers that Mace addressed in his piece – the great difficulty and cost associated with trying to develop for so many competing mobile platforms – and of course lets us know that developing web applications can go along way towards resolving those issues:

It’s a mobile zoo out there. If you’ve ever tried coding up a mobile client application, you’ve probably noticed that the huge variety of mobile operating systems makes it tough to build rich applications that work on every device. We face the same challenges. But what if developers could deploy applications directly to mobile browsers rather than develop native applications? That would simplify the development process, as developers could use the same coding skills to create mobile applications. Even better, if these mobile web applications could work offline, users would be able to use them when they are disconnected from the network.

Ironically, Google Gears for Mobile – which relies entirely on applications running via a browser – is launching initially on one of the least liked mobile browsers.  Yup, you can give Google Gears for Mobile a try already on a Windows Mobile 6 device and PIE – and there are two popular mainstream online apps that are ready to go now as well.

Take Zoho and Buxfer, for example: Zoho is a powerful suite of web-based productivity applications, while Buxfer is an innovative personal finance web application that helps you track your money. With Google Gears for mobile integrated into mobile Zoho and Buxfer, you can now access these web applications even when your phone is disconnected from the mobile web. Stuck on a plane? No problem — you can still read your docs on your mobile with Zoho Writer Mobile offline. Want to buy that new plasma TV, but can’t remember how much is in your account? Check your balance with Buxfer’s mobile web application, even if there is no cell phone signal. Try them out on your Windows Mobile 6 device by going to m.buxfer.com or mobile.zoho.com.
When you first access mobile Buxfer or Zoho Writer on your Windows Mobile device and go offline, you will be asked to install Google Gears for mobile. Once installed, Gears sits happily on your phone helping you stay connected to your data — even when you lose your network connection.

Of course, there are plans to bring Google Gears for Mobile to other mobile platforms “with capable web browsers” quite soon.  I wonder whether tomorrow’s Apple iPhone / Touch SDK and Software Roadmap press event will reveal more on this subject.  I think it would be pretty surprising, given Google’s many iPhone focused apps and iPhone’s more than capable browser, if we don’t see something very soon for the iPhone.

Have any of you tried out Google Gears – mobile or on the desktop – yet?  I’ve only used it with Remember The Milk (online to-do list app) so far, and it works smoothly and well for that.  What do you think about local apps vs offline-enabled web apps?

Via: Google Mobile Blog

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