What would the mobile Web be like if there was a magical program that gave everyone the tools to build apps? Google’s about to find out.

This month, Google developers announced the launch of their new App Inventor site, which will allow less tech-y individuals and businesses to create their own apps for the Android operating system. The site, still currently in beta testing, has been received with mixed reviews: while the concept behind App Inventor is novel and unprecedented, critics are concerned with the prospect of consumers, luddites—anyone—building apps.
 
Some tech writers anticipate that App Inventor will no less than revolutionize the Android platform, propelling it instantly past competitors like RIM, and the iPhone. The rationale behind speculations like this, is that by distributing the tools necessary to develop applications more broadly, Google will stimulate the growth of the Android marketplace, which currently lags far behind Apple’s extensive app store.

But this is not an opinion shared by too many in the tech world. Other mobile analysts are less optimistic about the effect Google’s new site will have on the Android platform. In fact, many critics fear that putting power in the hands of the technologically inept masses may work against Google’s ultimate goal—to strengthen their app marketplace. Worse, yet, they assert that a move like this could hamper the progress of mobile Web development by introducing new, lower standards into the mobile ecosystem.
 
Admittedly, the controversy over App Inventor has engendered some extreme opinions, and it’s likely that the outcome, as well as the critical response, will be more moderate than these speculations suggest. Still, they are concerns that shouldn’t be ignored. For anyone (or any brand) serious about a mobile Web presence, App Inventor should not figure into the mobile marketing strategy. Indeed, it should be a non-option for many, as blogger Eric Lai asserted in his comment that “for enterprises investigating the right way to mobilize, Google’s App Inventor for Android isn’t even an interim or band-aid solution.”

Our team is, of course, interested to see how the App Inventor experiment unfolds as the general public plays developer for a turn. That said, it isn’t a course of action we would recommend to brands and businesses that want to engage mobile users. We believe accomplishing that still takes a bit more expertise.