From a marketing perspective - I know lots of people and blogs who monitor the app store for new apps and try them out. An HTML5 app means that you will not have access to this crowd.
Ask HN: Mobile dev - Bypass apps and go straight to HTML5?
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Re: Ask HN: Mobile dev - Bypass apps and go straight to HTML5?
#12Is it possible to wrap a HTML5 site into an application? I mean, to make it appear as an app on the phone, even in the app store, but it's just using the browser to connect to the HTML5 site?
Yes - that is for example what tools like PhoneGap are helping with.
Re: Ask HN: Mobile dev - Bypass apps and go straight to HTML5?
#13Here is an example of where exactly what you are asking has been done to good effect. By inserting a line of code in your normal website, we detect which device you are on and redirect you to a HTML5 + Jqtouch version of the site which acts and looks a lot like a native app (especially on the iphone) See http://www.pocketdiner.co.uk We've had no problems so far so the answer to your question is yes - HTML5 is mature…
Thanks - that is exactly what I'm talking about.
But don't you have a problem with older mobile browsers not being able to render the site correctly?
Re: Ask HN: Mobile dev - Bypass apps and go straight to HTML5?
#14The App Store / Marketplace is a very important distribution channel, which I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss. Downloading an app in today's modern phone is almost as frictionless as entering a website.
Yes, but it implies the user anticipating the use case...
Would you download an app which talks you through fixing a car engine before you actually needed it, for example?
Re: Ask HN: Mobile dev - Bypass apps and go straight to HTML5?
#15Depends upon what the device market breakdown among your potential customers..
Symbian-everything before ^3 devices not fully html5 WM-everything before WM7 not fully html5 BB-everything past 4.4 is almost full html5 Android- 2.1 and beyond is full html5 iPhone iOS 4 is full html5
I would start examining frameworks such as PhoneGap, QuickConnect, etc to see which covers the best as far as html5.
Of course this depends upon whether you need to access native device features as at the moment the un-spec HTML5 through webkit only has camera, audio, geolocation, sms.
Re: Ask HN: Mobile dev - Bypass apps and go straight to HTML5?
#16I'd say - build an HTML5 app, but add native wrappers (just Webkit) so you can push it to App Store or Android Store. That's what I'm doing now (after a couple of native apps). on iPhone webapps are still not as good as native ones - you can't put them on App Store (a large audience) and they don't handle multitasking well. Assuming your app can be done in HTML5.. if it's a game or it requires a lot of integration wi…
Sure, cycle intensive use cases will probably use native code for a long time to come.
The idea of adding native wrappers around a pure HTML/JS implementation sounds very interesting - like having your cake and eating it....
Re: Ask HN: Mobile dev - Bypass apps and go straight to HTML5?
#17Here is an example of where exactly what you are asking has been done to good effect. By inserting a line of code in your normal website, we detect which device you are on and redirect you to a HTML5 + Jqtouch version of the site which acts and looks a lot like a native app (especially on the iphone) See http://www.pocketdiner.co.uk We've had no problems so far so the answer to your question is yes - HTML5 is mature…
Thanks - that is exactly what I'm talking about. But don't you have a problem with older mobile browsers not being able to render the site correctly?
Without describing what phones/operating systems you're expecting to target it's difficult to get specific. You will absolutely run into rendering issues between different mobile browsers, this will likely never go away, but the good news is the majority of the more recent mobile browsers are based off of, or will be, WebKit. If you go the Mobile Web application route and don't limit your scope to more recent phone OSes you're going to have to deal with the challenges of cross-browser development which could involve just as much time and effort as going a native application route with a helper framework like PhoneGap.
Re: Ask HN: Mobile dev - Bypass apps and go straight to HTML5?
#18From a marketing perspective - I know lots of people and blogs who monitor the app store for new apps and try them out. An HTML5 app means that you will not have access to this crowd.
Yes, but that implies the app is an end to itself.
What if you just wanted to present an existing web service to mobile users in an "app-like" UI?
Re: Ask HN: Mobile dev - Bypass apps and go straight to HTML5?
#19making web apps as polished as web apps is very hard, however you get a lot of the way there and its 10% of the effort.
You can still do distribution through the appstore with a uiwebview, I am not sure exactly how stringent apple are in this regard.
However its fairly obvious that html(5) is the future of these things, and the turnaround on html applications is far far faster, so yeh I would recommend going html5 until you have strong signals that a native app is needed.
Re: Ask HN: Mobile dev - Bypass apps and go straight to HTML5?
#20What about monetization? If it's ad-based, alright; however, in many cases the simple payment process offered by iTunes, for instance, is essential.
Good point. I should have mentioned monetization is not an issue. In other words, if what we aim to build were in an app store it would be free anyway. Basically I'm asking whether HTML5 will be mature enough both in terms of functionality and browser market share in around 6 months time.
andrewf is completely right. You should plan for what capabilities exist today on the platforms you're targeting. Taking advantage of upcoming synergy is a lofty goal, but expecting it and making your plans depend on it would be a mistake.