On Tuesday, Mozilla introduced WebAPI, its answer to providing a basic HTML5 platform across all devices, operating systems and browsers so that developers can create universal apps rather than separate versions for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, WP7 and other platforms. While this may sound too good to be true, Mozilla is hard at work at making it happen, and is calling on contributors to apply their input. Mozilla is even hiring several full-time engineers for working with WebAPI.

“Where we are today, there’s a clear distinction between the Open Web and native APIs and how things have to be built,” states Robert Nyman, technical evangelist for Mozilla. “As many developers are aware of, we need consistent APIs across web browsers, operating systems and devices to be able to build something for the world, not just a specific device or vendor. We need a way to take the web to the next step.”

For starters, Mozilla wants to get the following completed within the next three to six months which will essentially provide a basic HTML5 phone experience:

• Dialer: Telephony & Messaging API, Contacts API
• Address Book: Contacts API
• SMS: Telephony & Messaging API, Contacts API
• Clock
• Camera: Camera API, Filesystem API
• Gallery: Filesystem API (could possibly be FileReader & FileWriter in conjunction)
• Calculator
• Settings: Device Status API, Settings API
• Games: Accelerometer API, Mouse Lock API
• Maps: Geolocation API, Contacts API

“Specification drafts and implementation prototypes will be available, and it will be submitted to W3C for standardization,” Nyman said. “Security is a very important factor here, and it will be a mix of existing security measurements (e.g. asking the user for permission, like Geolocation) or coming up with new alternatives to ensure this.”

While the project seems pretty ambitious, getting Apple, Google, Microsoft, RIM and other mobile OS providers to jump on board will be another issue altogether. On iOS, these HTML5 apps will likely be accessed in Apple’s Safari browser much like Facebook’s Project Spartan will whenever it launches. Google may be just as stubborn, but that could change over the next six months.

According to the MozillaWiki, the Accelerometer and Geolocation APIs are already present in Firefox. All other APIs mentioned above are listed as “work in progress” save for the Filesystem API. “Mozilla will most likely not implement the FileSystem API. For local file access, we have implemented FileReader and plan to implement FileWriter,” Nyman said. “A file system abstraction can additionally be built on top of IndexedDB.”

As for security, Mozilla clearly doesn’t want any random webpage to be able to read the user’s contact list, or able to issue arbitrary commands to any USB device which is hooked up to the user’s computer. “This is an area where we’re still doing a lot of research,” Nyman said. “I really want to emphasize that we don’t have all the answers yet, but that we plan on having them before we roll out these APIs to millions of users.”