Torsion Mobile LLC went live last week, entering a mobile marketplace without the launch of a smart phone application.

Instead, Torsion has developed a Web-based software program that recognizes when users log on to websites using a mobile device rather than a desktop computer.

Torsion’s software then redirects the users to a customized online environment hosted on its servers, negating the need to develop mobile applications for devices and operating systems such as Research in Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry, Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android.

Christian Gurney and Richard Kirsner, who in 2000 founded KG Interdev LLC in Des Moines, said they have invested about $100,000 in their latest venture. Within the next 60 days, they plan to roll out the beta version of what they are calling “Project M.”

Their goal is to provide solutions to marketers, designers and other Web professionals whose clients are looking for an alternative to the native mobile application market. “We’re giving them a tool to quickly build out these mobile experiences,” Gurney said.

Citing a September 2010 report by the Pew Research Center, which said minority adults outpace whites in their use of social technologies, Gurney said Torsion is especially focused on blacks and Latinos, and might eventually expand into South America.

“The (Web) browser is ubiquitous,” Gurney said. “It has been ignored because the big stories are focused on native apps.”

Hoping to cash in on an alternative to native applications that may have been overlooked by some younger technology professionals, Kirsner, 65, and Gurney, 47, hope to hire about a dozen employees.

Gurney said the service will be sold as an annual subscription and likely cost between $10 and $20 a month.

“We’re business people. We’ve run businesses,” Kirsner said. “When we go talk to customers, chances are pretty good that we actually understand their business, and not just provide some whiz-bang tech tool for them. I think that differentiates us.”