HTML5 – the long awaited and still not officially released successor to HTML4 (the language we have been using for nigh-on 20 years to create websites) has finally come of age, and put the boot in too.
First off – the science bit. HTML5 is the new version of HTML, the markup language we all use to create web pages. It’s been out of date of a long time, but that’s something most of us developers haven’t even noticed as we workaround it having known nothing else. The big ambitions with HTML5 are that media is supported off the bat – you can insert video and music without any care for plugins – and that the markup is entirely semantic. Seman-what?
To create pages in HTML you have to use their markup language, in HTML5 you can use your own. So in the past where you have surrounded everything with generic tags such as <p> and <div>, you can now use your own i.e. <address> <telephone> <pudding> <bananaman> etc.
Why is that great? It means that the HTML5 is (theoretically) a list of page ‘data’ which can then be formatted according to the device you are using. Which means you can attach CSS and JQuery files to the page depending on the browser and device being used. In plain English the Web version of the HTML 5 page can look different to the Mobile version without needing 2 different versions coded up.
HTML5 is still to be ‘signed off’ as it were, Internet Explorer doesn’t even get close to supporting it (boo) and like with all new technologies dynamic, coherent and efficient ways of implementing it are years away.
So why does this kill the Mobile App? We’ve been saying here at CHWD for a while that the ‘app’ is an unsustainable and endangered species. Apart from a few special cases where the app is using the mobile’s own technologies such as SMS or GPS, or is a game, 95% of apps are just replicating what is already on the web. There are many different mobile platforms, so that means creating at least 5 apps – one for each mobile operating system (Blackberry, Android, Windows, Iphone …) and then supporting each one as they change, mature, die off and come into being.
Lessons from the 1980′s tell us that isn’t sustainable – the PC grew from the fact that despite all the different manufacturers and options, each PC had the same core, thus killing the Commodore 64, Spectrum, BBC Micro et al who all had different operating systems. And this is where HTML5 is taking us – out of the ‘app’ and back into the browser.
What has sparked this blog? Amazon, fed up of giving 30% to Steve Jobs everytime someone buys from their site using the Amazon ‘app’, have created a HTML5 version of their eBook store. It works like an app, feels like an app and even smells like an app, but runs entirely in the mobile phone browser using HTML5. The Financial Times have done the same thing too and no doubt countless high-end apps will follow. As HTML5 is universal, and mobile browsers are (sort of) universal, no need to create multiple apps, just create a single HTML5 site aimed at the mobile market and everyone is catered for. Voila.
All they need to do is to create Angry Birds in HTML5. Actually on second thoughts…
By Colin Harris