This article on an interesting new entrant to the smartphone app market for museums, TourSphere™ popped up this week on Museum Walk. While this is billed as a smartphone “app generator”, from the description it may be more accurate to say that it is an authoring, content management system (CMS) and hosting solution for self-publishing feature-rich mobile sites. It’s an intriguing approach to delivering site-specific content to mobile devices, that seems to promise several key advantages. The fact that the resulting “app” is browser-based means that compatibility with any smartphone browser, regardless of operating system (Apple iOS, Android, or other) is assured. The self-published aspect ensures that updates will be affordable, and the web-based nature delivers current content to all users without the hassle of asking visitors to update their app. Pricing is on a subscription-based model, at $400 per month, on a month-to-month basis, with no commitment required. While that price sounds somewhat steep over the long haul, it may offer an affordable entry solution for small to medium sized institutions without the resources to develop and host mobile sites on their own.
This browser-baser approach to the “app” is definitely a viable option going forward, and larger institutions could probably take the idea and run with it quite well on their own. The mobile browser method could work well for historic sites, zoos and outdoor parks, as well as museums. In fact, with GPS awareness, it could be very effective as a wayfinding strategy in many applications as well. TourSphere™ is currently in beta, according to their site.
via: Museum Walk
