In April of 2010, Steve Jobs released a public letter titled
"Thoughts on Flash" where he documented his opinion on the closed
platform and announced that he was putting the corporate weight of
Apple and the entire iOS platform around an open technology
standard known as HTML5. In doing this he single-handedly
pushed this relatively unknown technology into the spotlight.
All of a sudden, it was like we were re-living the web 2.0
technology "revolution" as companies rushed to advertise how their
products were HTML5 compliant.
So what's a marketer to do with all the conflicting information
out there about HTML5? The first step is to arm yourself with
knowledge. The rest of the article is dedicated to debunking the
three most common misconceptions around HTML5.
Misconception #1: HTML5 is a single technology or
operating system.
Probably the biggest misunderstading about HTML5 is that it is a
single technology that you either do or don't support. The truth of
the matter is that HTML5 is not "one big thing" but in fact a
collection of smaller technologies that all have been grouped
beneath the HTML5 umbrella.
In the same way that Web 2.0 was more a philosophy than a
technology that moved to push the web towards a more social
platform approach, HTML5 is rooted in the philosophy of pushing
more power to the browser. That philosophy has in turn sprouted a
whole set of technologies, including everything from how to handle
multimedia, such as audio and video, to geo-location and native
file system access.
For a complete list of all of the different parts of HTML5,
check out the following link: http://dret.typepad.com/dretblog/html5-api-overview.html
This highlights that the main question
marketers and product managers should be asking themselves is not
"Are we using HTML5?", but more importantly "What specific features
of HTML5 can we implement to enhance our product message and the
user experience across devices?"
Misconception #2: HTML5 only exists because of
Apple's agenda against Adobe.
HTML5 was brought to the forefront of our marketing discourse
because of Apple's blatant refusal to support Adobe Flash on their
iOS devices. However, this isn't the only fuel behind the fire.
HTML5 is actually based on the observation that HTML, XHTML and
other web development technology are an amalgamation of various
software specifications, and HTML5 is driven by the desire to unify
them. Apple's decision to support HTML5 has definitely helped drive
it forward, but its development existed long before it had Apple's
backing and will continue with or without it.
Unlike Adobe Flash, HTML5 is an open standard, freely available
for creation and distribution to everyone, which has led to
widespread support from those in the development community who are
advocates of openness.
Misconception #3: HTML5 will solve all my mobile
website problems for me.
Most marketers have (hopefully) realized the importance of
having a mobile web presence for their business by now, but I keep
coming across more and more people who have the misconception that
all they need is an HTML5-based website because "HTML5 handles all
phone types, right?"
Wrong.
Hopefully one day all devices will have equal support for HTML5,
but as this chart prepared by Gustavo Hartmann shows,
not only do different browsers support HTML5 differently, but
currently even different platforms that use the same rendering
engine (such as WebKit) support HTML5 differently as well. So even
though the standard as a whole is moving in the right direction,
developing a mobile site using HTML5 is still not yet a simple
process that solves all your problems. It involves both
domain specific knowledge as well as the know-how to handle
specific device types within the code as well.
In conclusion, HTML5 is an incredibly powerful new set of
technologies, and as we move forward with its continued development
and standardization across device types it will only become more
important to break away from the misconceptions and stereotypes and
begin to focus on exactly what, when, and how you can use it best
for your business.
*For an educational session on HTML5 and how your company,
product, and brand can benefit from it, get in touch with 2ergo for
a personalized consulting workshop!
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References:
http://www.triballabs.net/2011/03/html5-on-mobile-browsers-what-can-you-do-today
http://www.incredibletutorials.com/articles/5-misconceptions-about-html5
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