HTML5 and the Future of PhoneGap and WebView+

By Peter Rogers, Principal Architect, Mobility, Cognizant

HTML5 is still one of the most discussed topics amongst us technical types.  The key challenge, however, has remained unanswered for a long time. How do you effectively wrap HTML5 for use in native mobile applications? Unfortunately I do not have a universal answer, but I do have a solution for Android.

Firstly, I recommend looking into the use of Vellamo in order to benchmark the performance of HTML5 on Android (http://www.quicinc.com/vellamo/).  Vellamo is designed to be an accurate, easy to use suite of system-level benchmarks for devices based on Android 2.3 forward. Vellamo began as a mobile web benchmarking tool that today has expanded to include two primary chapters: the HTML5 chapter evaluates mobile web browser performance; and the Metal Chapter measures the CPU subsystem performance of mobile processors.

I have my own custom architecture that extends RESS (Responsive Design + Server Side Components) called P-RESS (Performance RESS). The idea is to include performance based information inside the device family configurations. This means that an HTML5 based mobile client can query the RESS server to ask about the performance characteristics of its device family. This can be used to downgrade the graphical experience, for example removing a parallax scrolling background.

The big problem up until recently was that wrapping HTML5 into a WebView on Android meant that you had to use the default web browser, which unfortunately was not Chrome. Instead you ended up with the Android Stock Browser, which was a long way from Chrome. With Android 4.4 (KitKat) we now have the ability to use the Chrome browser through the WebView by default and this is very much welcome (https://developers.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/webview/overview#what_version_of_chrome_is_it_based_on).

There are two downsides to this effort though:

1. It only works on Android 4.4
2. The WebView shipped does not have full feature parity with Chrome for Android (it is based on Chrome 30 as opposed to Chrome 33)

This means that the following features are not available:

• WebGL (3D canvas)
• WebRTC
• WebAudio
• Fullscreen API
• Form validation

There have been a number of open source efforts to deliver a Chrome WebView that works across Android 4 and now it appears two companies have started to offer their own versions: Famo.us (http://www.infoworld.com/t/mobile-development/famous-were-building-better-phonegap-236267); and Ludei (http://support.ludei.com/hc/en-us/articles/201952993).

There is a subtle difference in marketing though: Famo.us claim to be building a better PhoneGap; whereas Ludei claim to be building something that is PhoneGap compatible. Both systems bundle the latest edition of the Blink engine (Chrome 33) with the App using a Cloud based build system. The two companies also have cool demos of WebGL running through a WebView on various Android 4 devices. This also means that when Chrome 34 arrives then it is presumed that could be bundled instead – depending on backward compatibility with earlier versions of Android 4.

Famo.us actually answer one of the key questions. Does each app have its own separately bundled edition of Chrome? Each time a Famo.us app needs a particular version of Chrome, that version is installed in such a way that other apps that need it can also use it – think shared libraries. At the moment the footprint for Chrome 33 is around 15-20MB but they predict the size will come down to 10MB. They can also have it not be part of the initial download of the app, but rather as an app upgrade.

It is unclear if Ludei will offer a similar shared library system at this time. One thing Ludei do mention is the increased portability and performance that WebView+ (as they call it) brings to the web environment. Ludei used to only offer support for games but just recently they added application support as well and this is when I really took notice of CocoonJS.

With one consistent HTML5 environment then it means the developers know the feature set to code towards. It becomes a sort of HTML5 Reference Implementation for Android. The minor downside is this only covers Android 4 and above. The major downside is this only covers Android. There is no way of bundling the latest version of Safari with an App on iOS and Windows 8 is even more problematic.

The other thing that Ludei and indeed Intel XDK offer is technology that cross-compiles HTML5 Canvas into OpenGL(ES) for Android or iOS. That means that if you are wrapping an HTML5 Canvas into a Native App then it makes far more sense to cross-compile it into Android or iOS native code. Ludei claims to have the fastest accelerated HTML5 Canvas, but Intel acquired similar technology from AppMobi.  When Web Components become more widely supported then it would appear to be the next candidate technology to be cross-compiled into native code.

Oracle offers ADF Mobile which combines a Java VM with an HTML5 presentation tier, the benefit being totally portable plug-in extensions. Unfortunately when I looked into the solution there was no backward compatibility with existing PhoneGap plug-ins. Ludei has been clever here and made sure that PhoneGap plug-ins are explicitly supported and I am sure Famo.us will follow.

I had a chat with the W3C recently and asked if there was likely to be any standardisation in the following spaces:

1. Control over hardware acceleration
2. Mixing native code and HTML5
3. Pure HTML5 deployable Apps

The answer was that only the latter is being standardised and they are not seeing much uptake outside of Firefox OS. The manifest specification is being thoroughly updated through and this will see improvements to both HTML5 Cache Manifest and its future replacement called ServiceWorkers – all to be discussed in my next Blog (‘The future of HTML5’).  They also told me that the Windows 8 App Store allows you to host pure HTML5 applications.

This means that outside of standardisation, we are going to need to be looking at a new gold standard for HTML5 based Hybrid Apps as follows:

• A Chrome 33/34 WebView for advanced performance, feature set and portability
• An HTML5 Canvas to OpenGL(ES) conversion for Native Apps
• PhoneGap backwardly compatible for existing plug-ins

These are Peter Roger's personal observations and opinions and don't necessarily represent his employers.  You can contact Peter Rogers directly at Peter-2.Rogers-2@cognizant.com.

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

In Defense of Mobile Platforms - Guest Blogger David Akka

In several past articles published here, the ever opinionated mobile expert Peter Roger's shared his belief that the age of traditional mobile platforms had passed.  In this article however, guest blogger and mobile expert David Akka shares a different opinion.
***

Over the last six months I met with a wide range of customers and prospects in order to understand how they understand enterprise mobility, and especially to learn whether they see it as a business opportunity or just another piece of technology. It’s no secret that the past few years have seen a debate between two paradigms: whether to write specific code for different devices, or to take a wider approach. The rapid advances in mobile technology have led to a world where there is no single accepted approach, but history looks to be repeating itself from the desktop world, and I believe that application development platforms are the way forward.

In general, the company I work for has two types of customer: ISVs, who develop solutions and typically have some investment in a certain paradigm or technology; and end users across industries from financial services in banking and insurance, through logistics, leisure and more, who may have a preference for one internal environment but who have usually ended up with a mix of technologies. This range makes their perspectives on mobile technologies varied and fascinating.

I have written a lot on the application technologies war, mostly focusing on HTML5. What I’m seeing in the market is that people who have been convinced to develop specific code for each device are sticking with this route, as are those who have chosen to use HTML5 web apps. However neither of these approaches is completely issue-free.

Regardless of whether you choose to code natively or use HTML5, there are both pros and cons. Organisations using HTML5 for mission-critical applications find that they suffer from delays caused by the need to deploy patches; while custom code has proved to be very expensive in terms of time and effort needed to support the multiple versions needed for different mobile ecosystems and device types and keep them all up to date. Just take a look at the iOS and Android Facebook clients for an example of this. The question is, how to move forward?

Once upon a time…

I have long been an advocate of using a mobile business platform in order to build applications with true multi-platform and multi-channel capability, and this is not a choice between developing HTML5 or native applications. Platforms can do both, and which you choose is a deployment, not a development, question. This is not about generating code, rather, it is about pre-packaged functionality that can be configured through a development process and activated across any platform, whether native or HTML5.

Handy component pieces

The real advantage of using platforms is that they provide a uniform approach to develop, deploy and manage applications. From collecting data and processes from multiple sources, whether these are located on premise or in the cloud, traditional enterprise systems or social media, and reusing it in an auditable and governable way, to consumption of data services and user interface across multiple devices. For example, you can set policies to ensure that certain data or applications can only be accessed in certain countries, or only when an employee is working from home, via geofencing.

Platforms have the ability to encode auditability and governance automatically into your applications, going beyond the user interface. You can determine policies for how the application should handle data when there is no connectivity, such as underground or on trains. Offline access needs to be built in, as does security. Today’s enterprise mobile users are carrying out tasks that would previously only have been available behind the firewall, so it’s increasingly important that security is built in at the device, application and user levels. Platforms enable all of this, not as a patch-based solution but as a single-stack solution to enable features to be easily built in.

I have written many times about the benefits of platforms, but I find that their benefits are often misunderstood. Especially in organisations where there is a strong understanding of HTML5, mobility experts fall into the trap of believing that just because they can make HTML do what they want that this is all their solution needs. For example, just because you can fire a HTML wrapper at a problem doesn’t mean that this is the easiest solution to maintain, upgrade or deploy to multiple devices.

The real benefits of platforms lie in the ways they enable you to predictably develop, manage and experience your applications, such as allowing you to concentrate on service consumption and provisioning at all levels and across all your applications. Rapid development is also a benefit, as the pre-packaged functionality in the platform allows you to reduce your development time by up to 80%, thus reducing your time to market as well as costs. Likewise, this rapid, agile development allows end users to participate in all stages of development, ensuring that the resulting applications are better adapted to user requirements and market needs. As most platform vendors incorporate the latest mobile technology into their platform via updates, allowing you to use it without researching the technologies in great detail, it becomes easy to keep your applications up to date. This has always been a benefit of using platforms, but it is especially noticeable with mobile due to the rapid evolution of the technology, especially when it comes to security, data standards, and ecosystems.

To examine why platforms are so important, let’s take a trip to “ancient history”, or as you might know it, about 20 years ago and the early days of ecommerce on the web. When websites first became important business tools they were written directly in HTML, and while there were some very impressive efforts, overall this trend led to sites that were little more than an online version of the company’s paper catalogue or brochure. This also led to pages becoming increasingly complicated as revisions were made or new technologies adopted. Consider that in the space of a few years customers started to expect embedded media, secure payment, live stock levels, mapping and online reviews: trying to code all of this into a page by HTML was very complicated.

The solution to the ever-increasing complexity of webpages was to use platforms which allowed new technologies to be implemented as standard objects, rather than having to write everything from scratch, to the point that today webpages resemble a Lego model rather than a hand-written essay. For example, if you want to create a blog site, using platforms such as WordPress or Eblogger is an obvious choice, while Magneta, Shopify and Voluta easily handle the complexities of an e-commerce website, and for a CMS there is a plethora of choices such as Drupal, Squarespace, and Movable. Platforms can also be easily updated to cope with new requirements, thus simplifying maintenance, while custom HTML or Java is used to customise rather than create. Remember that the purpose of mobile apps is not just to present information, but to be able to reuse existing business logic behind a new user interface.

Is the past relevant to mobile?

I believe that the picture in mobile today is very similar in that while many organisations have used HTML or Java to create a mobile experience, but today they are finding that it is no longer enough to wrap these around a page to make a mobile app.

The challenge is that users are trying to do far more on mobile now. Mobile apps don’t just need to present data to a user in an attractive way: users need to be able to update that data, and the more we do, the more important it becomes to ensure the right data gets to the right people, when they want it. Today’s mobile apps need to be able to set intelligent policies regarding who can access what data, they need to have security built in, along with management tools. As users increasingly rely on mobile, offline access becomes critical, and apps need to be updated rapidly as demands change, in a world where “rapid” could mean “within 30 minutes”.

Further, as users try to complete more of their computing tasks on mobile, the mobile experience needs to grow far beyond the cut-down “mobile interfaces” we have come to expect. Mobile users are expecting to have all their workflows at their fingertips, and the logical, integrated processes that result are no less at home on desktop. This means that it makes no sense to separate mobile apps as a standalone page: because we need a template, the full business logic and workflows, mobile is moving beyond a “look and feel” issue. What we are moving towards is a world where collaborating and sharing data is enabled by seamless processes, making users quicker and more effective.

This look at the past shows that many organisations today are just dealing with a thin layer of what mobility is all about. Yes, you can easily design HTML pages yourself, but it is hard to upgrade the look and feel, maintain the applications or assign and control user rights. Learn from the dotcom era and content websites, and move toward using a platform today, to better manage your logic, processes and data in a maintainable way for the long run.

The industry has already acknowledged the key role of platforms in its mature desktop web technology: now it’s time to learn from the past, embrace platforms in mobile and avoid a future disaster.

Watch the Google+ Hangout interview with Dave Akka, http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2014/04/mobile-expert-interview-dave-akka-on.html.

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Browse the Mobile Solution Directory

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Personal and Enterprise Clouds, HTML5 and Mobile Devices

Click to Enlarge

In the recent survey "State of Enterprise Mobility 2013" I asked the question, "How many wireless devices do you use daily?"  An incredible 69 percent use three or more wireless devices daily.  I myself use three - my MacBook Pro, iPad mini and iPhone.

I use my iPad mostly for reading email, notes, news, ebooks and social media, plus I watch videos and listen to music on it.  I use my iPhone for the same purposes when I am on the go, plus texting, phone calls, the camera, fitness apps and maps.  I use my laptop to do many of the same things, but specifically to write, use Microsoft Office apps, participate in video conferences and conduct research and store photos.

There are a lot of overlaps in what I do on the devices, which is the reason the whole concept of the "personal cloud" is so valuable to me.  Rather than store all content on devices and worry about synchronizing updated versions of my content across other devices, much of my personal content is stored in personalized clouds.  My Blogger and Facebook accounts are personal clouds where I store and share my content.  LinkedIn, Twitter, iCloud, EverNote, Box.net, DropBox, Instagram, Pinterest, etc., are also personal cloud services where you can store and share content.  The value, of course, is that you can access all of your content from any of your wireless devices with minimal effort and maximin convenience.

Enterprises will find the same kinds of benefits that I do but on a much larger scale.  Companies that recognize a permanent requirement to support an increasing number of enterprise mobility apps on ever-changing devices, must seek a model of design, development, deployment, maintenance and support that maximizes efficiency, productivity and minimizes TCO (total cost of ownership).  In today's world - that model looks like HTML5 apps managed and deployed using enterprise cloud services.

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Video Series: Cognizant's Jeff Wallace, Part 2

In Part 2 of this interview series (watch Part 1 here) with Cognizant's mobility expert and Mobility Practice Lead Jeff Wallace, we explore when HTML5 is the best development option, and when native is the best development option for mobile apps, plus how different mobile application development platforms have approached this issue.  Grab some popcorn!

 *************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Video Series: Cognizant's Jeff Wallace, Part 1

Last week I spent some time in Silicon Valley and met up with my colleague Jeff Wallace who runs Cognizant's Mobility Practice.  I cornered him and asked his thoughts and opinions on HTML5 in this short video.  Jeff shares how HTML5 is maturing and closing the capability gap between native and HTML5.  Grab some popcorn!  When you are done, watch Part 2 here.

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) Cognizant

View Linkedin Profile

Read the whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict’s What’s New in HTML5 – Week of December 9, 2012

According to FaveQuest CEO Allan Isfan, HTML5 didn’t revolutionize the mobile business as expected, but instead it “over promised and under delivered”.  Read Original Content

The QNX CAR HMI framework for the automotive environment features HTML5-based technology and a direct development path from mobile to automotive.  Read Original Content

According to a post on the Codiqa blog, HTML5 is a “revolution for the open web” and more companies and developers stand to gain through the greater adoption of HTML5 than with proprietary platforms such as iOS.  “Looking into the future, we strongly believe that HTML5 and open web technologies will increasingly become the standard for mobile and desktop development.”  Read Original Content

App47 announced it has added HTML5 support to its enterprise mobile application management platform, stating “more and more enterprise clients are choosing HTML5 over native when looking to get out the door faster and deliver mobile apps to employees in less time and for less money”.  Read Original Content

Firefox for Android has expanded its HTML5 video capabilities to include H.264 video playback.  Read Original Content

App Studio is a new cloud-based HTML5 solution from Quark that “turns print into interactive digital experiences”, offering developers the flexibility to use tools familiar to them to create app content for smartphones and tablets.  Read Original Content

Nokia’s new site was built with HTML5 as the company feels HTML5 is more accommodating, with the different components of the web page making it easier to add video, social media and other content.  Read Original Content

Andrew Gazdecki, founder and CEO of Bizness Apps, feels startups should develop both mobile apps and HTML5 mobile websites, and should consider developing for the mobile web first, rather than developing an app on each platform at the beginning.  Read Original Content

UK footwear company Schuh has launched a new mobile site completely built in HTML5.  Read Original Content

A chart featured in Ciklum’s blog shows over 80 percent of developers are not satisfied with HTML5 monetization and over 70 percent are dissatisfied with performance and fragmentation.  Read Original Content

Sesame Workshop’s Noah Broadwater points out that while enterprises don’t want to build the same thing over and over again, they don’t have much choice right now as HTML5 remains comparatively weak for rich interactivity, video and other features, and there is still no HTML5 standard.  Read Original Content

UpSync has added HTML5 support to its Intelligently Integrated Selling platform enabling administrators to upload HTML5 apps as well as other multimedia content audio, video and documents.  Read Original Content

Web jeweler Ice.com has launched an HTML5-based m-commerce site that resembles an app in appearance, navigation and functionality.  “An HTML5 mobile web site cannot do everything an app can, but Ice shows it can provide a convincing replication.”  Read Original Content

In the first in a series of HTML5 tutorials designed for developers, WP Engine co-founder Aaron Brazell covers “Working with HTML5 Forms”.  Read Original Content

Webinar distributor BrightTalk now features an HTML5 player, enabling mobile users to watch videos that weren’t previously accessible.  Read Original Content

ServiceMax, creator of cloud-based, mobile and social field service applications, has released the HTML5-based ServiceMax Winter ’13.  Read Original Content

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict’s What’s New in HTML5 – Week of December 4, 2012

Max Katz of Tiggzi brings his perspective to the native vs. web apps topic, stating there are advantages to each, and hybrid apps offer many of the advantages of both approaches.  Read Original Content

NonStop Games' Henric Suuronen feels some of the recent criticisms of HTML5 were deserved and some were not, and states that despite its bad publicity, HTML5 is still a viable platform for games.  Read Original Content

Microsoft has been working with a number of companies to optimize select HTML5-based sites to function better on Internet Explorer 10 and Windows Phone 8.  Read Original Content

Men’s magazine GQ has given their British site a new look – the new gq-magazine.co.uk is built in HTML5 and includes new features and updated sections.  Read Original Content

In dotMobi’s “Ten Questions to Answer Before Developing Mobile Web Tactics”, marketing manager Martin Clancy addresses whether businesses should just concentrate on native apps by stating that a mobile app is not a full mobile strategy.  “Right now, the mobile web is the only way to reach your entire audience in one fell swoop and updating your site is seamless.”  Read Original Content

With an estimated 60 percent of corporations implementing BYOD strategies, multiple types of mobile devices may be in use within one corporation. As it may be too expensive to build native apps for all devices, HTML5 and jQuery Mobile technologies enable developers to build mobile cloud apps once for use on many different devices.  Read Original Content

Knitd, an HTML5-based web app planned for launch in the U.K. in 2013, will offer readers the chance to buy individual articles via a micropayment system.  Read Original Content

Online music streaming service Grooveshark has launched a mobile website  coded in HTML5 that offers its music library online for free.  Read Original Content

Ben Savage, founder of Spaceport.io, explains why he feels HTML5 didn’t meet the high expectations set in 2011 in “Why HTML5 Provided More Tricks than Treats in 2012” featured in VentureBeat.  Read Original Content

California-based startup Famo.us has developed a new approach to developing HTML5 apps to work on varied devices including tablets, cars, televisions and smartphones.  Read Original Content and Read More Original Content

Kevin Benedict’s What’s New in HTML5 – Week of November 25, 2012

In this update on "What's New in HTML5" the debate around the merits of HTML5 continues as Brightcove's CEO Jeremy Allaire says Mark Zuckerberg was "dead wrong" about HTML5.

Now for the news...

Nokia’s new free cloud-based map service, HERE, will be available on multiple operating systems, including an HTML5 version for Apple’s iOS.  Read Original Content

Mobile social gaming platform GREE is expanding its compatibility with HTML5 and will roll out the enhanced HTML5 functionality worldwide in open beta this month.  Read Original Content

Caplin Systems has launched a Web-trading tool, Caplin Trader 3, built entirely in HTML5 to provide support for all platforms from one codebase.  Read Original Content

The New York Times has redesigned its crosswords page with a new HTML5 version to enable game play within the browser, allowing players to access puzzles without leaving the NYTimes.com website.  Read Original Content

BoosterMedia provides an infographic detailing the world of HTML5 mobile gaming in this article featured in me mobile entertainment.  Read Original Content

Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire believes hybrid apps are essential to getting the technical economy highly productive, and states Mark Zuckerberg was “dead wrong” and it was “shameful for him to throw HTML5 under the bus because Facebook had an outdated and poorly written hybrid app”.  Read Original Content

Mobile and digital consultant Michael Nuciforo compares the native vs. HTML5 debate to choosing whether to purchase a Ferrari or a Toyota in this article in Finextra.  Read Original Content

Computer maker Dell has created tablet-optimized catalogs and smartphone mobile commerce sites for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  The digital catalogs are HTML5-based so consumers can view them on any mobile browser.  Read Original Content

LongTail Video has released a major update to its video player with enhanced HTML5 support leveraging many of the recent advancements in HTML5 browsers, including the HTML5 Fullscreen API.  Read Original Content

Tylted has launched GameDrop Network, a mobile advertising platform that integrates Tylted’s HTML5-based ad server with an app publisher’s existing ad server.  Read Original Content

ViewTube is a userscript compatible with various web browsers that replaces Adobe Flash Player with an HTML5 video player on popular websites, giving users the opportunity to try out HTML5 video.  Read Original Content

HTML5 Web-publishing platform Wix has formed a partnership with e-commerce website solution Shopify to enable Wix’s users to integrate Shopify into their HTML5 websites.  Read Original Content

Gaming site JackpotCity Casino has added two new HTML5 mobile casino games.  Read Original Content

Apex Studio has released the new generation of HTML5 Movie Maker for Windows, enabling users to convert multiple formats video files to HTML5 video to play on browsers and mobile devices.  Read Original Content

Magic Software’s David Akka believes the hype around HTML5 continues to gather momentum, but won’t be ready as a reliable development tool for the enterprise for another 2-4 years.  Read Original Content

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict’s What’s New in HTML5 – Week of November 18, 2012

A lot of evolution has happened thus far in 2012 with HTML5.  The best use cases for HTML5 are being discovered, while the areas that are weak are now better understood.  I expect additional development and increasing use of HTML5 in 2013. 

I believe in HTML5.  IT organizations have as their number one priority, solving business needs, followed by managing TCO (total cost of ownership).  HTML5 fulfills both of these needs.  If a mobile worker needs order and inventory information while on the road, they don't need every bell and whistle possible in native code.  If HTML5 can efficiently enable many of these small mobile apps that provide real productivity to be developed and deployed quickly at low costs, then IT organizations should be embracing it.  If you have time later, find a use case for native, but don't delay productivity gains in order to justify developing in native.

Now for the news...

The Wikimedia Foundation is deploying an HTML5-based video player that will make it easier to add video clips to the millions of articles on the Wikipedia site.  Read Original Content

Researchers at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology report online tracking technology is evolving as tracking techniques like Flash cookies are being replaced by HTML5.  The use of Flash cookies dropped 15 percent from May to October 2012 and HTML5 local storage use increased by 12 percent.  Read Original Content

Google has launched a new experimental and interactive web app, JAM with Chrome, built with HTML5, CSS3 and the Go programming language. Read Original Content

Sencha has released version 2.1 of the Sencha Touch JavaScript library for mobile devices, designed to help developers create HTML5 apps for mobile platforms including iOS, Android and BlackBerry.  Read Original Content

The BlackBerry 10 browser has passed Ring 1 of the Ringmark benchmark standard for HTML5 app compatibility.  Read Original Content

Amit Gupta of JoomlaIntegration believes HTML5 apps for Smartphones “have a better user interface, utilities for events and other effective features”.  Mobile shopping from applications using HTML5 is formulated with the Database, Canvas and GeoLocation API’s.  Read Original Content

Developer David Walsh describes and demonstrates “Camera and Video Control with HTML5”.  Read Original Content

An executive at European news outlet FinancialTimes.com recently stated the decision to focus on HTML5 rather than native apps resulted in increased mobile usage and revenues for the company.  “The reports of the death of HTML5 are greatly exaggerated.”  Read Original Content

Microsoft’s new SDK for IE10 enables developers without advanced expertise in CSS and HTML5 to “create site features such as multiple columns, positioned floats and device adaptations” and features an HTML5 application cache that makes website files available offline.  Read Original Content

Maltese furniture house Fino has redesigned its website using HTML5 technologies and is now easily viewed on desktops and mobile devices.  Read Original Content

LinkedIn has replaced the HTML5-powered search function on its iPad app with native code, and the company reports it saw a 20 percent increase in searches as a result of the change.  Read Original Content

Mozilla has released Popcorn Maker 1.0, a free online video editor built entirely in HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.  Read Original Content

LG Electronics announced it has added HTML5 support for its Pro:Centric IPTV platform for the hospitality industry.  Read Original Content

FTAdviser has launched a new mobile web app built using HTML5 technology “to provide an effective, interactive user interface without the need to download through an online store”.  Read Original Content

Jaspersoft has replaced the Flash-based visualization engine with HTML5 in the new release of its business intelligence suite.  Read Original Content

Tom’s Guide provides a list of “20 HTML5 Games to Pass the Time”.  Read Original Content

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict’s What’s New in HTML5 – Week of November 11, 2012

There are a lot of companies announcing support for HTML5 this week - especially media related.  However, even with this momentum there remains a great need.  Yesmail reported this week results of a survey that shows 41% of mobile device owners have purchased products as a result of mobile email promotions, but one-third of those emails linked to web pages that were not optimized for mobility.

Now for the news...

The Next Web has launched its new site named TNW: Reader Edition which “focuses on improving readability, mobility and browsability thanks to simplified UI, speed and the wonders of HTML5”.  Read Original Content

According to Chris Heilmann, the debate about the “readiness” of HTML5 is based on a lot of false assumptions and myths.  He addresses these HTML5 myths in the article “HTML5 Mythbusting” on the hacks.mozilla.org website.  Read Original Content

Developer Brian Taylor outlines and describes what he feels are the “Advantages of HTML5 and CSS3” in this article in Business 2 Community.  Read Original Content

CampusTours has launched an update to its Virtual Capitol experience built with HTML5.  Read Original Content

According to HTML5test.com, the Wii U Internet browser has the most comprehensive compatibility with HTML5 of any dedicated game console to date.  Read Original Content

Results of a new survey of app developers from Kendo UI reveal 51 percent of respondents indicate HTML5 is important to their job now, and 31 percent say it will be important to their job within the next 12 months.  Read Original Content

Journalism.co.uk has launched a beta web app built with HTML5. The HTML5 app is a work-in-progress, with functionality such as sharing via social media and bookmarking to be added soon.  Read Original Content

Weejot.com, which uses HTML5, JavaScript, CSS and JQueryMobile, wants to build enthusiasm for app development and programming, so will give Weejot accounts to all students using the service on any campus.  Read Original Content

jqMobi has released the developer preview of HTML5 framework jqMobi version 1.2, which adds support for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.  Read Original Content

Accusoft has announced the release of Prizm Content Connect v6 HTML5 zero-footprint content viewer, optimized to view documents in desktop and mobile web browsers that support HTML5.  Read Original Content

HTML5 based books allow publishers greater control over their content and allow authors to embed the book in their own site to sell copies.  Michael Kozlowski describes “How HTML5 Based Books Will Disrupt the Digital Publishing Sector” in this article in Good E-Reader.  Read Original Content

PurdueSports.com and CBS Sports College Network worked together to create a new HTML5 backup video player, enabling fans of college football and the Purdue University Boilermakers to get their football fix on their mobile devices.  Read Original Content

Social project management platform Wrike has released a native HTML5 web app and Android and iOS apps to keep up with the rising trend of individuals working remotely on their mobile phones.  Read Original Content

To help with CNN’s coverage of the 2012 U.S. Presidential election, B-Reel utilized HTML5 to create an interactive microsite, Campaign Explorer, which runs on CNN’s website and can also run as a Google Chrome application for desktop and tablet devices.  Read Original Content

India's largest online hotel network, Travelguru, has launched a new HTML5-based mobile website.  Read Original Content

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict’s What’s New in HTML5 – Week of November 4, 2012

Google has rebuilt its Whatbrowser.org site with HTML5.  The site is now available on mobile devices.  Read Original Content

Playtech has launched its open framework Mobile Hub, built with HTML5 and compatible with Web browsers, native applications and across all HTML5 ready devices.  Read Original Content

Barneys New York has unveiled a new HTML5-based mobile site designed to make the shopping experience seamless for users.  Read Original Content

According to Infosecurity magazine, web scanners are not keeping up with newer technologies such as HTML5, and manual testing has been the only way to detect vulnerabilities.  Read Original Content

AppMobi has upgraded its HTML5 SDK, adding support for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, enabling developers to produce Java and HTML5 apps both from the same code.  Read Original Content

According to Gartner analysts, HTML5 will be a key mobile technology in the future, but “fragmentation and immaturity will remain challenges through 2015, so HTML5 is a very long way from being a panacea for cross platform development. Some of HTML5's challenges can be reduced by using JavaScript frameworks which can hide some platform and browser dependencies.”  Read Original Content

Software development and hosting company EyePartner has updated their Web design and is showcasing advancements in technology with a new HTML5 mobile module and channel manager.  Read Original Content

Almost 75 percent of end users in North America are using browsers that support HTML5, and the number of HTML5-compatible browsers grew from 57 percent to 75 percent between the second quarter of 2011 and the second quarter of 2012.  Read Original Content

Because HTML5 “works for cross-platform environments, is easier to manage compared to Flash, is a first-class citizen on the browser, and is attractive to developers”, online diagram and flowchart software Gliffy is abandoning Flash and moving to an all-HTML5 platform and will soon take HTML5 to the tablet market.  Read Original Content

Software development firm Chetu utilizes HTML5 to provide a smoother experience on mobile devices while cutting down per platform costs for each mobile platform.  The initial prototypes “show superior and near native experience for eLearning content using HTML5”.  Read Original Content

Mobile radio service Stitcher has launched an HTML5-based Web app, which enables playback on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.  Read Original Content

Only 75,000 mobile Web or HTML5-based apps exist today, a small portion of the 1.25 million native apps in the current mobile market.  Appcelerator’s white paper explores “Native vs. HTML5 Mobile App Development: Which Option is Best?”  Read Original Content

Winter sports online retailer Snow Republic has launched an HTML5 Web app to provide users with a native app-like experience with cross browser compatibility.  Read Original Content

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin Benedict's What's New in HTML5 - Week of October 28, 2012

Quantas Freight has launched its new HTML5-based mobile app and mobile site for smartphones.  Read Original Content

Phineas Barnes, in the article “HTML5 Is the Real Loser In The iPhone Maps Fiasco” in Business Insider, believes that the native app experience is much better than web apps and HTML5 comes out the loser.  Read Original Content

QNX Software Systems has announced the HTML SDK, an extension of the open source BlackBerry WebWorks framework, specially optimized for automotive environments.  Read Original Content

Apple has purchased Particle, an HTML5 web and web app design firm that has done HTML5 work for Google, Motorola, Amazon, Yahoo, Sony, and Apple.  Read Original Content

Christian Heilmann of Mozilla believes developers shouldn’t abandon HTML5 - even with bumps along the road, as the benefits of HTML5 will ultimately prove worthwhile.  Read Original Content

Mobile social game company Gree has launched a new open-source tool for creating Unity - and HTML5-based smartphone apps with Flash content.  Read Original Content

Developer Eran Zinman of Conduit shares his “real life experience” with “Native, HTML5, and Hybrid Mobile App Development”.  Read Original Content

 The DevCon5 HTML5 Developers and Design Conference will be held November 27-29, 2012 in San Francisco and will feature leading HTML5 developers, engineers and evangelists.  For conference information, go to http://www.html5report.com/conference/california/.  Read Original Content

InfoWorld highlights “7 Apps Making the Most of HTML5” illustrating how to make the most of HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS.  Read Original Content

Oracle has released its Application Development Framework Mobile, an HTML5 and Java-based framework to enable developers to build, deploy and extend enterprise applications for mobile environments from a single code base.  Read Original Content

Cookeatshare.com is developing a free HTML5-based site for iOS and Android devices.  Read Original Content

Mike James describes how to utilize HTML5’s Media Capture API when creating web apps in this article in i-programmer.  Read Original Content

Microsoft‘s HTML 5-based Office Web Apps are now live and available through SkyDrive and Outlook.com.  The new web apps have been fine-tuned to work properly with the final version of Internet Explorer 10, Windows 8 and iOS 6.  Read Original Content

According to LongTail Video’s “State of HTML5 Video”, 79 percent of the market can now play HTML5 video.  Read Original Content

Jeff Corbin of theIRapp outlines why he feels HTML5 misses the mark in mobile investor relations strategies in his whitepaper “Investor Relations (IR) Apps: Native or HTML5?”  Read Original Content

“Mobile applications and HTML5” are number two on Gartner’s list of the top ten strategic technology trends for 2013, and one of the assumptions by year end 2014 is that HTML5 will be the “mainstream enterprise app vehicle”.  Read Original Content

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Finally a Modern HTML5 Answer for Windows Mobile Users

Things often move in slow motion in large companies.  It takes months and sometimes years to get your IT project on a priority list that gets funded.  You must seek and receive approvals from dozens of executives and managers who are often playing musical chairs on the organizational chart.  But with months or years of persistence, you may finally gain all necessary approvals and a real budget.   Now you must deliver on your projected ROIs over the next 36 months.

That is often how big enterprise mobility projects work in the world of rugged and industrial grade mobile and handheld computers.  This is a world foreign to many people familiar only with the consumer mobility space where new mobile apps are released daily, handsets and smartphones are released weekly and new versions of mobile operating systems are released quarterly.

In this industrial world of concrete and rivets, dust and rain $2,000 rugged handhelds must last 4-6 years, not months.  That means tens of thousands of companies and millions of industrial users are still using ruggedized handheld computers and mobile devices that may be 6 years old.  These are generally running on Windows Mobile operating systems.  These ruggedized mobile devices are ancient compared to the iPhone in their pocket and iPad on their desk.

These ancient mobile devices still function, but have been until now limited to only running old versions of software that are still capable of running on old versions of Windows Mobile.  That means entire industries are missing the mobility revolution and all the powerful news mobile applications and innovations that have been delivered over the last few years.  This is not a good position to be in.  These users have hit reached a dead end with their mobile technology and have missed the entire wave of mobile web based innovations, that is until now.

Earlier this month Intermec announced, http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120925005237/en/Intermec-Offers-Industry’s-Flexible-HTML5-Capable-Browser, a new HTML5 browser that runs on old Windows Mobile devices.  This is HUGE news!  If you can now use new HTML5 based mobile applications on ruggedized mobile dinosaurs, then you have jumped one of the biggest hurdles that exist in the industrial mobility industry.  Here is an excerpt from Intermec’s announcement, “Intermec’s HTML5 offering includes a true web browser application, based on WebKitTM, for multiple models of Intermec’s handheld computers for Windows® Mobile and Windows Embedded operating systems.”

Here is another excerpt from Intermec’s press release, note the references to the words – modern, latest, extends and future proofing, ““Intermec’s new HTML5-capable browser offers enterprises the flexibility to equip their mobile workers with a modern user interface and latest business logic, along with the right device for their specific working conditions and usage demands,” said Earl Thompson, Intermec Senior Vice President, Mobile Solutions Business Unit. “Offering much more than the next iteration of web language, Intermec’s HTML5 offering extends the Web paradigm to a whole new class of future-proofed applications by allowing for them to be developed and deployed cross-platform.”

This news means that there is now hope for millions of Intermec users which Microsoft had left behind several years ago, dead-ended on old Windows Mobile operating systems.  Today, they have the potential of leap frogging ahead and using innovative HTML5 based mobile apps on their same old ruggedized devices.

The term I am using, old ruggedized mobile devices, does not mean they don’t have real and important value.  They may be perfect for the tasks they do.  However, today, with this announcement, their ROI and value may have just jumped considerably.  I am excited to hear what ClickSoftware’s Gil Bouhnick’s says when he reviews Intermec’s browser and HTML5 capabilities.

 *************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.