Wapple has announced the latest version of its ad-funded mobile web design, hosting and management package, Wapple Canvas Free. First launched in July, the package enables anyone to get a highly functional, professional site up and running for free. But enhancements to the service mean that the ads served are far less obtrusive and better targeted to the audience.
The free mobile websites are primarily funded by Google Adsense, but users can also chose to work with any of Wapples ad-serving partners such as such as Google, AdMob, Admoda and Decktrade to generate their own revenue.
The latest Wapple ad-funded solution provides free use of the innovative Wapple Canvas suite of mobile Internet design tools that the company says is now even easier to use, with a range of templates and step-by-step design wizard. Once created, the Wapple Delivery Engine ensures that the site is reconfigured and optimised to display the best results on any mobile device, on any network and from any country.
For those that prefer not to incorporate banner advertising, it is still possible to use the standard Wapple Canvas Free package, with prices starting at 15 a month for the Wapple Delivery Engine when the site goes live. More advanced Wapple Canvas packages with additional functionality, such as integrated billing, are also available.
The Wapple ad-funded model has worked well and successfully removed the barriers to creating a mobile presence by making it quick, easy and free, says Wapple Business Development Director, said Anne Thomas. After feedback from our customers, we decided to enhance the service provided to them and ensure that the ads being served were less obtrusive and more relevant to the site itself. And by using Wapple they not only get a mobile website up and running at no cost, they get a site that is highly-functional, professional, mobile-search ready and that actually works properly on some 5,000 mobile devices.”
The Wapple Canvas toolkit is accessible from anywhere in the world through a PC web-browser. The simple, point-and-click, drag-and-drop interface makes it possible for anyone to build and get a mobile web site up and running in a matter of minutes, says Wapple.
The company  provides a fully hosted solution that comes with a Wapple URL that can easily be pointed to the users own domain. The Wapple Delivery Engine automatically customises and renders mobile Internet pages to individual browser-based mobile devices,  and delivers rich optimised WML, HTML, XHTML, CHTML content to 3G, iMode, GPRS and GSM networks as well as Wireless LAN.
Data is also collected on visitors to the sites and full statistics are provided. The Wapple core technology automatically generates and submits a Google site map that describes each sites pages and content to ensure strong positioning in mobile search engines.