Computerworld -
2012 wasn't a great year for HTML5. If it were a football team, the markup language would be at the bottom of its division. But just as the most banged-up team has its diehard fans, companies using HTML5 for mobile application development are not giving up on the would-be standard's cross-platform appeal just yet.
Still, they're not exactly cheering recent developments either:
HTML5 has usability issues. When German social games developer Wooga abandoned its HTML5 efforts last June, it cited problems beyond performance. Specifically, HTML5 apps usually require an Internet connection to load and frequently use, which brings up concerns about discoverability and connectivity.
It has reputation issues. The most notable slam was Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's announcement at TechCrunch last September that "the biggest mistake we've made as a company is betting on HTML5 over native [code]."
And it has performance issues, and has all along. "Performance breaks down with applications that have heavy graphics," explains Jeffrey Hammond, principal analyst for application development and delivery at Forrester Research. Performance is also a problem, he adds, when too many users try to access the same Web application at the same time.
All that said, at least some developers believe the industry will iron out the kinks. After all, HTML5 proponents like to note, Zuckerberg later said in his speech, "It's not that HTML5 is bad. I'm actually, long-term, really excited about it."
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He acknowledges that there was a learning curve. "With our early versions, you'd open the app, and it would load ... and load ... and load, because we were loading code into device memory over the network. So we cached and loaded all the HTML5 code so that it's already there when users download it from the app store. That makes the performance snappier."
Taqtile still runs into issues with accessing on-board hardware components, such as scanners and cameras, because the current HTML5 standard doesn't yet easily accommodate them. And that creates a special set of problems, especially with Android. "With Windows Mobile, you can test on one device and it'll work on all of them. BlackBerry has two form factors," says Tomizuka. "When you get to Android, there are thousands of devices that you have to support. It's impossible to test all of them sufficiently to say your app is going to work 100% of the time."
Layered apps
Another start-up committed to HTML5 is Tokyo-based Wizcorp, a developer of mobile social games running on multiple platforms. In Japan, according to brand manager Mark Armitage, mobile games are inherently multi-player. "You log into a social network, collaborate with other players, and share achievements, sometimes synchronously and sometimes asynchronously."
Wizcorp built its Mithril game engine using HTML5, JavaScript, and NoSQL; it uses the PhoneGap/Cordova open-source cross-platform mobile development framework for its games; and with a recent investment from Gree, some elements of that mobile gaming platform.
To overcome the challenges of HTML5, Wizcorp engineers created a series of plug-ins. "Think of our app has having layers -- our game engine, the Gree SDK, PhoneGap and HTML5. We created plug-ins to bridge the gaps between the layers and make every layer speak to the next layer," says Armitage.
While the plug-ins help make cross-platform development easier, tracking and incorporating changes within the moving target of the HTML5 standard is still a problem. "We've got a bunch of developers on projects with deadlines, but the issue is finding the time to stay up to date with what's happening with HTML. It's changing very quickly from week to week."
On the plus side, says Armitage, the open-source technologies all have large communities dealing with the same issues. "The open-source community shares information and helps determine the best methodology to use going forward. We're not alone in our struggle with the changing standard."
"We wouldn't do anything differently," says Micky Brunetti, Wizcorp senior front-end engineer, of the decision to go with HTML5. "It's true that we run into problems, but we keep learning all the time."
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The issue is finding the time to stay up to date with what's happening with HTML. It's changing very quickly from week to week.
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