Moboom has launched version 2.5 of its responsive design website platform. The main change this new version brings is the addition of a widget marketplace which enables users to buy and sell code for specific features.

“The big difference is that weve opened up the platform, so that anybody can come in and extend it,” Moboom COO Jef Rice told Mobile Marketing. “Thats core to our strategy. We focus on what were good at, and leave it to our partners to extend the platform in a variety of ways, and add richness and depth.”

In a wider sense, 2.5 is intended to lower the barrier to entry. The previous version, 2.0, brought in a drag-and-drop UI but, as CEO Gavin Burnett admits, “you still did need to be a developer”. Now, users can use prebuilt themes and widgets developed by others to built out their site.

What makes this interesting is that its all responsively designed – the platform can display the site as its being built, in a variety of screen sizes – but also the reduced timeframe for development. According to Rice, Moboom has worked with brands who spent six weeks building a site, and were then able to achieve the same results using the platform in just three hours.