A lot of discussions are happening on HTML5 Vs the Native application
development on the web. Some of the organizations like Facebook and
Xero have ditched HTML5 mentioning it as premature. Having worked on
HTML5 for sometime, I see a lot of benefits in HTML5 for certain kind of
applications.
Introduction to HTML5
HTML5 is a standard which allows you to develop applications once and deploy it on multiple platforms. In the current scenario when there are multiple OS like Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Tizen for mobile devices, there are two options
a) To develop native applications
b) To use cross platform technology like HTML5 .
Developing a native application means developing the application for each of these platforms. This increases the development & maintenance cost, effort, schedule.
HTML5 uses the webkit engine for rendering application pages, as webkit has become a defacto for all the mobile devices (iOS, Android, Tizen, Symbian) hence it provides a common platform for developing applications.
Things to consider before choosing HTML5
In the current context when lot of development is happening on multiple HTML5 based frameworks, it is important to understand the pros/cons of different frameworks and choose one which best suits your needs. For e.g. Jquery Mobile can be chosen if you are targeting a wide variety of mobile devices. There are other frameworks too like Sencha Touch, Appcelerator etc which are worth evaluating before choosing the platform for development.
It is important to understand the customer needs in terms of look and feel and make him aware of the performance he can achieve using HTML5. The UI/UX have to be designed extremely carefully in conjunction with the development team to ensure that you get the best possible user experience.
Developers having a thorough understanding of development tools and expertise in HTML5 development should be assigned the task, application developers who do not have HTML5 expertise can cause a disaster.
Designing things in the right way, making code reusable is also one of the most important factors to consider, in order to enable cutting on development and maintenance cost for HTML5 applications.
If the application does not need to be extremely rich in UI and does not use a lot of platform features like camera, video playback etc HTML5 is worth having a look at.
Conclusion
Applications with very rich look and feel and lot of platform integration involved might not be very well suited for HTML5 and hence a native approach should be taken. However, for other applications using the right HTML5 tools with a high quality design and development, application goals can be met with HTML5.
Introduction to HTML5
HTML5 is a standard which allows you to develop applications once and deploy it on multiple platforms. In the current scenario when there are multiple OS like Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Tizen for mobile devices, there are two options
a) To develop native applications
b) To use cross platform technology like HTML5 .
Developing a native application means developing the application for each of these platforms. This increases the development & maintenance cost, effort, schedule.
HTML5 uses the webkit engine for rendering application pages, as webkit has become a defacto for all the mobile devices (iOS, Android, Tizen, Symbian) hence it provides a common platform for developing applications.
Things to consider before choosing HTML5
In the current context when lot of development is happening on multiple HTML5 based frameworks, it is important to understand the pros/cons of different frameworks and choose one which best suits your needs. For e.g. Jquery Mobile can be chosen if you are targeting a wide variety of mobile devices. There are other frameworks too like Sencha Touch, Appcelerator etc which are worth evaluating before choosing the platform for development.
It is important to understand the customer needs in terms of look and feel and make him aware of the performance he can achieve using HTML5. The UI/UX have to be designed extremely carefully in conjunction with the development team to ensure that you get the best possible user experience.
Developers having a thorough understanding of development tools and expertise in HTML5 development should be assigned the task, application developers who do not have HTML5 expertise can cause a disaster.
Designing things in the right way, making code reusable is also one of the most important factors to consider, in order to enable cutting on development and maintenance cost for HTML5 applications.
If the application does not need to be extremely rich in UI and does not use a lot of platform features like camera, video playback etc HTML5 is worth having a look at.
Conclusion
Applications with very rich look and feel and lot of platform integration involved might not be very well suited for HTML5 and hence a native approach should be taken. However, for other applications using the right HTML5 tools with a high quality design and development, application goals can be met with HTML5.
This throws some light on HTML 5 and on which phones this can be used.
ReplyDeleteI have few technical questions:
From your blog I understand that HTML 5 is good for low end market. Any specific reason for this?
Any one having rich UI will have a high performance. So the latencies should be less in that case.
A gist of where HTML5 is good & where we should take caution. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHow about a real life example of how long it took to develop an HTML5 app vs developing it on a native environment?
ReplyDelete