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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?

#51

Post by jasonkester »

illumen wrote: post #41
jasonkester wrote: post #34

I guess it depends on the app, but be warned that performance of HTML5 on mobile devices such as the iPad is orders of magnitude worse than in native apps. So even something straightforward like, say, smoothly animating a pinch zoom on an image, is just shy of impossible on a mobile browser. Add any complexity to your scene, then try to animate it and you'll quickly start reconsidering building a native app. Sound is…

It's not that slow. I know this because I've done it. You just need to use the HW accelerated transforms/animations. They're pretty easy to use, and documented. There are some undocumented css things which cause slow downs though. Animation is as fast as lightning, with expert timing. In fact it's a little bit frighting what you can do with it. If you use js setTimer based animation it's not that great though. You ne…

Hey, if you have a working example of two simultaneous audio clips playing in an iPad, run off a timer with no user click to initiate it, I'd absolutely love to see it and swipe the code. Ditto for smoothly panning and zooming a scene without the 'disappearies'.

That sort of thing is trivial in a browser, but it just falls down on apple devices. If you have counterexamples, you can save me a lot of grief, so please share them.

Re: Ask HN: Mobile dev - Bypass apps and go straight to HTML5?

#53

Post by foobarbazetc »

matthewcford wrote: post #10
tomerico wrote: post #7

The 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.

Get the best of both worlds, build in html5 and put a thin wrapper around a webview with phonegap/titanium to get in the distribution channel

If you don't care about user experience, sure, do this.

Otherwise, build native apps.

If you can name one successful app that's just a webview then this might be an option.

Re: Ask HN: Mobile dev - Bypass apps and go straight to HTML5?

#54

Post by daxelrod »

foobarbazetc wrote: post #53
matthewcford wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get the best of both worlds, build in html5 and put a thin wrapper around a webview with phonegap/titanium to get in the distribution channel

If you don't care about user experience, sure, do this. Otherwise, build native apps. If you can name one successful app that's just a webview then this might be an option.

The Bank of America app is a webview of their mobile site. It has excellent ratings, and is currently the #1 free app in the Finance category.

All that said, it's clearly not a native app. Transitions from screen to screen are slow, do not animate smoothly, and sometimes exhibit drawing problems.

The punchline: their app description announces an upcoming native app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bank-america-mobile-banking/i...

Re: Ask HN: Mobile dev - Bypass apps and go straight to HTML5?

#56

Post by ido »

Udo wrote: post #33
tomerico wrote: post #7

The 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.

For the average developer, using the App Store as a distribution channel is like playing Russian Roulette with your resources. If you don't have considerable marketing money to ensure your app makes it to the top of the iTunes category, your app will simply be buried beneath the horrible user interface of the App Store. It's a little better as far as Android is concerned but not much. An app store is great for consum…

    Of course, there are a lot of apps that simply 
    cannot be built with HTML yet, especially 
    games...
Depends on the game - many genres do not require a lot of processing power (e.g. puzzle games, many turn-based games).

Re: Ask HN: Mobile dev - Bypass apps and go straight to HTML5?

#57

Post by stephenou »

Even though the technology behind HTML5 mobile app seems solid, there's still a big hole in the business aspect - no effective way to generate revenue. There's nothing near the App Store in terms of audience reach in the web space.

Put it in more perspective: Look how much iOS developers vs. general web developers are making. And I've also heard an iPhone app has more paid users than a web app (with the similar functionality)'s free users.

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