Hi.
I've been having difficulty wrapping my head around Wikimedia's (relatively) recent efforts in mobile application development. I understand that reaching users on mobile platforms is important to the Wikimedia Foundation and I've read https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects/strategy and related pages.
Mobile seems to have two branches these days: (1) the mobile versions of the sites; and more recently (2) specific mobile applications. Branch 1 is fairly understandable. What I'm having difficulty understanding is branch 2.
The idea behind free and open content is that the content can be taken and reused and redistributed by others without issue. That's part of the great beauty of Wikimedia wikis. With a vibrant app market for both Androids and iPhones, why is Wikimedia getting involved in mobile application development? Isn't this something best left to third parties (which, as I understand it, have already filled the "Wikipedia app" niche with a variety of options for both platforms) or interested volunteers?
MZMcBride