Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sencha's Michael Mullany

Sencha is one of the three new partnerships SAP announced in April around HTML5.  Here is a quote from SAP, "By collaborating with Adobe, Appcelerator and Sencha, SAP will enable millions of developers to effectively build mobile apps based on their choice of client architectures - from native to hybrid Web containers to mobile Web.  Developers will be able to do so while leveraging an industry-leading enterprise mobile application platform from SAP."

Sencha targets the enterprise market and is very excited to be a partner of SAP.  Sencha is doing a lot of things right.  They already have over 1 million downloads of their HTML5 tools, and have 350,000 members in their forum.

I believe SAP is very smart with these partnerships.  There is no way that SAP can keep up with the demand for mobile applications, so they partner with HTML5 tool vendors and ask the industry to standardize on their mobile platforms.  The end users can now choose their own development environment as long as it supports SAP's mobility platform.  The burden for supporting the demands of developers will then mostly fall on the shoulders of these HTML5 tool and framework vendors.

At the same time as SAP announced the partnerships with HTML5 vendors, they also announced the acquisition of Syclo.  Syclo has many great mobile application development tools, but does not currently have HTML5 support, so these partnerships will also serve to provide an alternative development environment for companies wanting to standardize on HTML5 when possible.

SAP also has a partnership with ClickSoftware which has an HTML5 development environment in their ClickMobile Professional solution.

I asked Sencha's CEO Michael Mullany for his prediction on what percentage of enterprise mobility apps will be based on HTML5 by 2014.  He answered, "50% will be HTML5, 20% native and 30% will be hybrid HTML5 apps.  I read that as 80% of enterprise mobility applications will be using some form of HTML5 by 2014.  Wow!

For integrations with SAP, Sencha is connecting via NetWeaver Gateway.

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

What's New in HTML5 - Week of April 1, 2012

Thanks for reading "What's New in HTML5!"  This is a series of articles that I publish each week to keep track of developments around HTML5 for the enterprise mobility market.

I speak to enterprise mobility vendors, developers and consultants daily, and many of them advocate native apps over HTML5, but I am not convinced.  I spent time working in an IT department of a large electronics company early in my career, and I know many apps simply need to provide mission critical data, updates, alerts and data collection at the point of need.  These apps don't have to rock your world.  It is the data that is necessary.  This category of apps could easily and cost effectively be HTML5 apps and run on many different device types efficiently.  What do you think?

Zipline CEO Todd Hooper feels that HTML5 is great for corporate apps, but not yet ready for more than simple games.  Read original content

Nokia’s chief technology officer states, "Once HTML5 browsers and fully capable Web runtimes are in place on the common Kindle through iPhone, the Web app will begin replacing native apps".  Read original content

John Mueller of Google has changed his tune about HTML5, and now states that there’s no “bonus” for using HTML5, but that it has no downside.  Read original content

Telerik has expanded Kendo UI with a new release to provide developers with tools for JavaScript and HTML5 development for websites and apps.  Read original content

How to build an HTML5 video player – from a presentation at the recent HTML5 Video Summit in Los Angeles.  Read original content

BlackBerry sales are falling in Canada, and RIM sees HTML5 app development as a possible solution.

Read original content  More on this subject here.

As of March 25, 2012, the Tizen 1 and BlackBerry 10 browsers are at the top of the development/beta list of the HTML5 browser compatibility test.  Opera Mobile 12 and Firefox Mobile 10 are at the top of the “current” list.  Read original content

Adobe’s CSS Regions proposal seeks to remedy the weaknesses of HTML5 in written content presentation.  The proposal “defines a system for creating magazine-style text layouts in Web content”.

Read original content

Do-it-Yourself website builder Wix has announced its new HTML5-builder, which requires “zero knowledge of HTML coding or any other technical understanding”.  Read original content

Telenav has announced its new free Scout for Apps service which allows developers to access an HTML5-based mapping system and incorporate the functionality into existing websites.  Read original content

DevCon5, an HTML5 Mobile App and Developers Conference, will be held April 25-26, 2012 in Santa Clara, California.  Read original content

Mozilla has announced a new multi-player online game that shows off the capabilities of HTML5.  BrowserQuest is a “free open-source HTML5 mini-MMO” that runs in a single web page.

Read original content and more

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

What's New in HTML5 - Week of March 26, 2012

HTML5 based ads are gaining on Flash.  For ads that will be seen on mobile devices, developers are focusing on HTML5.  Read original content

Systems management and monitoring firm DN2K is turning to HTML5.  It announced that HTML5 is now, “one of its core technologies in its business and industrial application platform”.  Read original content

ChronoZoom is a new HTML5-based web application developed by Microsoft Research, Russia's Moscow State University, and UC Berkeley.  The site uses mixed media to let visitors visualize the universe.  Read original content

A free HTML5 video converter service has been launched to provide a method to convert video files to HTML5 compatible formats.  http://www.html5-converter.com/  Read original content

I found a series on using HTML5 and CSS3 to transform a website into a mobile site.  Read original content 

Mozilla updated HTML5 video controls in the latest version of Firefox version 12, which was just released in beta.  Read original content

With all major browsers now supporting the HTML5 Geolocation API, it would be interesting to understand what can be done with it.  In this linked article, Danwei Tran Luciani for The Code Project  explores the possibilities.  Read original content

Opinion piece - Native apps will be around for some time to come, but the push for HTML5 standardization from powerful groups like Facebook and others are starting to push apps from native to web.   Read original content

The HTML5 Canvas element and Google Maps were used by Vizzuality to create an interactive map that provides visualization of the intensity and location of deforestation.  Read original content

WSX, a new feature from VMware, uses the HTML5 Canvas element and Web Sockets to let users access virtualized desktops remotely through a web browser.  WSX is compatible with Firefox, Chrome, and Safari on the desktop and Safari on iPads.  Read original content

MoSync has announced its new mobile development SDK, MoSync AB, which will allow developers to use HTML5 technology to, “Create hybrid apps or native apps with native features and UI experience for Android, iOS and Windows Phone and submit them to multiple app stores within hours instead of weeks.”  Read original content

Seventy-nine percent of mobile developers report they will integrate HTML5 in their apps this year, according to a survey conducted by IDC and Appcelerator.  The survey responses indicated that developers are planning to develop HTML5 and “hybrid” apps.  Read original content

A new Internet Explorer 9 website for The Hunger Games film shows off the possibilities for HTML5-based sites.  The website (http://thecapitoltour.pn/) was launched by Microsoft and Lionsgate.  Read original content

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

What's New in HTML5 - Week of February 20, 2012

HTML5 is gaining momentum in the war for multimedia dominance, but Flash still wins, according to gaming source One More Level.  Read original content

For better performance with HTML5 web content Microsoft recommends Internet Explorer 10 over other platforms.  Read original content

GamesMadeMe Founder and CEO Juha Paananen states “The browser will become the dominant platform on desktop and mobile and people will start to expect that they can play the same game and be part of the same experience on all devices…most games of the future will be designed so that you can access them from anywhere.  Read original content

Sencha has launched a new program to assist Adobe Flex developers to become more productive migrating to HTML5.  Read original content

Microsoft is bypassing HTML5 and launching native mobile apps for its customer relationship management (CRM) software, stating they’re watching HTML5 closely, but the focus “is to provide the best possible experience on native devices today."  Read original content

Despite some limitations, gaming platform Zynga is embracing HTML5 for its cross-platform aspect and other numerous advantages says  Zynga's CTO Paul Bakaus.  Read original content

The HTML5 accessibility website (http://www.html5accessibility.com/) has scored Mozilla’s Firefox way ahead of other Windows browsers for HTML5 accessibility support.  Read original content

According to Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, the mobile web will edge out mobile apps in the long term, as technologies like HTML5 improve.  Read original content

Microsoft highlights HTML5 in a Valentine’s Day browser demo.  Called “Love is in the Air” (http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/performance/loveisintheair/), the demo experience “brings together hardware-accelerated HTML5 canvas, SVG, CSS transforms & transitions, WOFF, audio, and more”, according to IE group program manager Rob Mauceri.  Read original content

AppMobi has made its playMobi HTML5-based game development SDK available for beta testing.  The SDK will provide tools for development of games in iOS, Android and Facebook platforms.

Read original content

The beta version of Google’s Chrome 18 browser is now available, and it includes GPU-accelerated rendering to allow games and animations built using the HTML5 Canvas tag to run faster and smoother.  Read original content

How does HTML5 fit into your mobile strategy?  Wilter du Toit, CEO of Virtual Mobile Technologies, weighs pros and cons in an opinion piece in IT News Africa.  Read original content

HTML5 doesn’t work in IE, won’t be ready until 2022, and isn’t “ready for prime time”.  These are three of the ten myths a Microsoft developer says is holding HTML5 back.  Read original content

Websites to explore that help you learn more about HTML5.  Read original content

StackMob, the cloud-based platform for mobile developers, has announced the launch of their hosted HTML5 service for desktop, tablet and mobile.  Developers can also use the new service to host HTML5 running in native apps.  “Eventually, HTML5 is going to win because of this network-connected device world.”  Read original content

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

What's New in HTML5 Week of January 23rd

Each week I conduct market research on HTML5 that includes news, quotes, market growth and developments around HTML5 and share the more interesting ones here with you.  I hope you find it useful.

A new survey from Evans Data shows that 43 percent of developers in North America and 58% in the Asia Pacific region are using HTML5.  The trend is expected to grow even further in 2012. Read Original Content

CEO of web framework and tool provider Sencha, Michael Mullany, states “Looking at the phenomenal rise of HTML5 as the next industry standard for Web development, it's clear that 2011 has been a transformational year for this powerful set of Web technologies.” Read Original Content

Cross-platform app framework service Trigger (https://trigger.io/) announced a new mobile development framework designed for web developers who wish to develop native mobile apps.  Co-founder and CEO Amir Nathoo states “Demand for mobile apps, both native and mobile web, is exploding and web developers are looking for ways to benefit from this shift.” Read Original Content

Web-based streaming music service Grooveshark is now available as an HTML5 app which runs in a web browser and is optimized for mobile devices.  Read Original Content

According to a January 16, 2012 article by Chris Wright, Silverlight’s future with SharePoint seems grim, with HTML5 stepping in as a replacement.  “Microsoft seems to be making a strategic decision to back HTML5 for web and app-style development. Windows 8 is using HTML5 as its application platform, so it seems likely that the next version of SharePoint will fall in line with this vision.” Read, “Do SharePoint and Silverlight Have a Future Together.”

"HTML5 is well on its way to fame and fortune, but it’s too early to declare a complete HTML5 victory over Flash video, as Flash still dominates on streaming web services."  This comprehensive article lists the benefits and limitations of HTML5 for use with video. Read Original Content

Kindle Publisher Tools with Kindle Format 8 (KF8) offers new features, including HTML5 support for publishers.  Details are on Amazon's website.  Read Original Content  

HTML5 Forms – Two articles of note:

1. “What's New in HTML5 Forms: The Datalist Control”  
2. “HTML5 Forms: How To Use The New Email, URL, and Telephone Input Types” 

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.