But your're ok with the child in Africa having to buy an expensive Mac?
An HTML5 app is a set of text files with a manifest (also text). It installs on the iPhone from a web site, then runs on the iPhone offline, complete with local data storage.
Apps that install on the iPhone (including PacMan) can be made on the OLPC laptop, no Mac or Windows needed.
Have I missed something: does this capability currently exist on the iPhone? Or this just wishful thinking?
... There’s no easier way to get an app than by installing it right from its website - that’s right, easier than the App Store. One tap and you’re set. Because it’s a web app, see. Not one of those where you need to be online either - once you add Pie Guy to your home screen, it’ll run even when you’re not connected to the Internet. And of course, your game will be saved to a local database. Read on...
Here's an example tutorial targeting web developers:
I feel a bit stupid now. But I'm also wondering how I've managed to remain completely ignorant of this alternative for deploying apps to the iPhone, when I try to follow this stuff pretty closely...
I think the extended soap opera about App Store riches, unfair refusals, Section 3.3.1, etc. has managed to eclipse this deployment possibility. It's a shame, really. Everyone (incl. Apple) might be better off if the issue were less polarised.
Web sites can also declare themselves to be "web apps", in which case the user can link them to the phone's home screen, and they can look just like native apps, with splash screens on startup; even hiding the usual safari navigation if you want.