Transpond launches do-it-yourself social app development

Creating a social application can be a great way to attract an online audience, but it’s often expensive and time consuming, especially for those without the technical expertise. Transpond, a development platform for custom social and mobile applications, today announced the launch of  TAP Social to make creating and deploying applications a breeze.
TAP stands for Transpond App Platform and is the backbone of the social application services targeting advertisers, marketers and publishers looking to easily brand pre-set template apps and distribute them to mobile platforms or popular social networks like Facebook. The applications, or “engagement applications” as the company calls them, are all developed in native format and specially formatted for their destination platforms including Facebook, Twitter, iPhone and Android. Unlike Flash based-apps which can’t run on iPhone or iPad devices (though Adobe promises it will soon be possible to export them).
Available applications range from content apps like YouTube video and Twitter feeds to more impressive engagement apps like quizzes and polling. There’s even what the company dubs “power engagement apps” — though there’s only one, amusical e-card that lets users write a custom message and send to friends. All apps include a dashboard to track analytics and easy one-click deployment.
A wide range of pricing is available depending on what type of application you’re looking to build. A basic app can cost you $1,200 while a power engagement app can cost $3,600. Transpond will also build your app for you, but will cost a bit more . Prices start at $2,000 for a basic app or $6,000 for a power engagement app.
Several companies, like GetSocialApps.com and SocialCubix, provide similar services for creating and distributing social applications. Though they don’t provide preset templates that allow for easy branding and distribution for those with time and money considerations.
The company, previously called iWidgets, initially developed apps for Palm Pre and Apple iPhone. The apps were also available for distribution to popular social networks like Facebook, Myspace, Hi5 but mainly focused on mobile platforms. The San Francisco startup has raised $4 million to date and several well known customers, including CBS, TV.com, Revision3, Lifetime Television, Universal Music Group, NBC Universal, Scion, and Visa.