DS Effects' Dario Sciacca on its HTML5 iPhone games and app portal

In what's expected to the first of many such moves, Italian mobile distributor DS Effects has launched an HTML5 games and app portal for iDevices. It will roll out a similar service for Android soon too.

As well as providing a direct sales channel to consumers, such portals offer developers much more flexibility in terms of circumventing the App Store and Android Market.

We caught up with DS Effects' Dario Sciacca to find out more.

Pocket Gamer: What do you think are the opportunities for portals such as DS Catalogue?

Dario Sciacca: It is an opportunity for all the companies who would like to monetise their iPhone and Android traffic and promote their brands.

The DS Catalogue is a white label solution so the partners can customise the portal for any preferences. They can have their logo and their ads in all the games and apps on the portal. It is an simple way to distribute over 150 games and apps and earn money.

What companies do you think will be interesting in licensing your portal?

We are dealing with operators, media partners, big portals, and apps developers.

What advantages does it provide in terms of circumventing the App Store?

You can choose what to put in the portal. You can insert a new game or app when you want and update it instantly.

Steve Jobs says there's two platforms for the iPhone. There is the App Store, which is the curated, closed part of the platform. And then there is HTML5, which is the free, open platform.

I think in a near future there will be many similar services to DS Catalogue.

How can you monetise such free games?

Mainly with advertising but operators and mobile value-added service providers can create a billing functionality to monetise the service. We offer also an offline version of our portal.

Thanks to Dario for his time.

You can view the DS Catalogue at www.dseffects.com/iphone.php.