There's been a fair amount of buzz lately about HTML5. The latest iteration of the most ubiquitous content-presentation language on the Web should simplify the inclusion of farmacieproprie.com graphics, audio and video – testament to the Internet's overwhelmingly obvious evolution in to a means of experiencing multimedia.
The impact HTML5 could have on the application development landscape is falling in to two camps: In the first are the Native Apps, with which we are all already familiar – the kind you purchase and install on your mobile device. In the second are browser-based applications, which are launched directly from a mobile browser. The complaint regarding the latter is that they are clunky, not user friendly, and therefore not worth the trouble. As for the former, developers appreciate the ease of deployment, but dread the idea of their beautiful, meticulously crafted app getting buried in an app store hosting literally thousands of choices.
Now, browser-based advocates are championing HTML5 as a means of deliverance for their applications. Developers will only need to make a single version of their app, which will perform better on both mobile and desktop browsers. Audio and video playback will be easier, and synching will also be greatly improved. Does HTML5 mean that browser-based apps will finally have their day? Are native apps destined for the dustbin of mobile technology?
I think it's deep-breath time.
The expectations put on HTML5 are, in my opinion, framed on the wrong questions. iOS/android native, HTML5, Flash, Silverlight, etc. – these are all technologies, and that's it. As compellingly innovative as we in the IT community might find any technological breakthrough, we need to remember that users don't give a damn. Users want apps. They want something narrowly focused, instant-on, that allows them to quickly and easily accomplish their goal, and then move onto their next task. The expectation set by mobility is that they should be doing all of this in a mostly connected environment that also allows for offline content creation and synchronization.
What renders the HTML5 discussion moot, or at least unnecessarily amplified is that all of these technologies can accomplish the same set of goals today, each with different degrees of usability. We might get worked up about native vs. browser, but the cold, hard reality is that users could care less. It doesn't matter if they click on a native app or web clip to update their CRM solution. They probably wouldn't mind if someone was feeding sunflower seeds to a hamster running on a little wire wheel to make their application work, as long as it remained easy to find, easy to use, available and performant.
That's a perspective we in the app dev community need to embrace, regardless of what innovations and breakthroughs are swirling around. When it comes to development, we shouldn't worry too much about whether apps are delivered via native code or HTML5. Let's concentrate instead on delivering the same level of visibility and control to the mobile application regardless of underlying technology.
