In this last part of the series, Ben Hanley, senior project manager from Evans Data Corporation, says that between 2010 and 2011, HTML5 adoption grew significantly spurred by better web browsers, and support from all major platform vendors
In this last part of the series, Ben Hanley, senior project manager from Evans Data Corporation, says that between 2010 and 2011, HTML5 adoption grew significantly spurred by better web browsers, and support from all major platform vendors.
CIOL: If I have to ask you which carriers that developers would prefer to work, which one would be that?
BEN HANLEY: In the current period, respondents ranked T-Mobile high overall, followed by AT&T and Vodafone. Other carriers are characterized by narrower regional focuses, and results appear consistent with local norms and use patterns.
AT&T, in particular, is well respected by developers, rating the American network as best at distributing mobile apps, providing the best tools, and doing exceptionally well in supporting a wide array of technologies.
Mobile carriers at one time had greater sway on the kind of mobile application development developers engaged in. Not so long ago, most developers who wanted their applications deployed on-deck, on user handsets, would need to go through mobile carrier approval.
This is still the case, though to a lesser degree, because mobile application development has settled into a platform app store model made popular by iPhone and Android. Still, technologies deployed by mobile carriers play a large role in the kind of applications developed.
CIOL: How do you see developers embracing HTML5 based apps?
BH: Evans Data research on web technology adoption in various surveys has shown that as the HTML5
specification has become mature and capable enough to deliver rich media over the web, its adoption by developers has grown precipitously. Between 2010 and 2011, HTML5 adoption grew significantly, no doubt spurred by better web browsers, and support from all major platform vendors.
Together with advances in mobile transmission technologies, backend processing and cloud-based virtualization, development with web runtimes of web apps can now provide users with as rich an application experience as applications developed with traditional third generation languages that use native APIs and run directly within an OS's application space.
With more computation handled by backend processes and the Cloud, mobile clients are left to run the lighter weight functions. Web apps may have become worthy cross-platform alternatives to applications developed in runtime environments precisely because they outsource the heavy work to more powerful resources. For these and other reasons, HTML5 has been embraced quickly by developers and is likely to continue its rapid growth.
