Wednesday, 11 July 2012

HTML5 and locking users in.

I'm wondering if we can really just do away with the Android Java SDK and iOS development in favor of web technologies like HTML5.

HTML5 is more open. And when I develop with HTML5, I don't need to translate from one app language to the other. And there is no real advantage in using the app system apart from being forced to use it. 

When will people realize that being locked into a system is not really in their interests?
When you realize that people are willing to get locked in because there is something they get out of it as a result.
Is it not difficult to see the reasons that makes platform independence a great option in the long run. You see, locking people in isn't the best way to really create value for customers, though it may be the safest way to guarantee business when you know customers don't have that many choices. But when customers do have good choices, it is supporting good standards that makes the most sense.

Having spotted that HTML5 is great stuff, perhaps Chrome has locked on to the right market there. And perhaps while an open-source free browser like firefox does not need to be the most popular, just the leading one in supporting the open standards and occasionally setting the standard for everyone else to follow.

2 comments:

Samuel Poon said...

Sorry been a bit busy - internship!

IIRC the facebook app is coded using html? Also, I prefer mobile-optimised web pages than apps, which are platform-specific.

Web apps (like google docs/drive) is wonderful, but I would really want it to be offline-capable and as crash tolerant as an offline software.

Sleeping at 10pm every night greatly restricts my internet activity. Now I'm wishing I got a mobile 3G plan with my phone contract. I end up reading my kindle while commuting (not such a bad experience really).

P.S. Are you going to HK Book Fair? It's next week.

Eugene said...

oh, sure. Good to meet you here.
I am busy through until Thursday.

Facebook app is nice, but a minority. There's no reason why they can't make HTML5 offline-capable, and the browser makes the system more tolerant overall.