Systems and methods are provided for creating, publishing, sharing, and delivering mobile software applications called “mobile widgets” onto mobile devices. A system may include functionality to render a declaratory component of a widget, such as HTML, and also functionality to execute an imperative component of a widget, which may or may not be compiled and/or in a scripting or functional language. Mechanisms for providing common access to disparate device capabilities APIs are also provided, as are mechanisms for installing widgets onto mobile devices and managing those widgets.