Apple puts up HTML5 showcase, demands Safari to view
updated 08:00 am EDT, Fri June 4, 2010
Apple HTML5 site ironically needs one browser
Apple overnight posted an HTML5 showcase page to make its case for the technology. The page includes a handful of examples showing how it can be used for advanced meda on the web, including media, typography and transitional effects. Its opening also takes a clear shot at Adobe's assertions that Flash is a standard, pointing out that a plugin by definition can't be a standard feature.
"Standards aren’t add-ons to the web. They are the web," Apple said.
The statement is potentially self-contradictory, however, as the page asks users to download Safari if not using the browser, even for a browser with some HTML5 support like Google Chrome. Few if any current browsers have a complete HTML5 implementation and may render some demos improperly even if they support common uses of HTML5, such as video.
News of the promo page arrives just as a new study from Streaming Media shows that 49 percent of web media sites plan to support HTML5 by no later than the end of 2011. About 22 percent either have HTML5 in place or plan to use it by the end of this year.
Apple may not necessarily require full HTML5 support to provide online video to the iPad and iPhone 4.0 devices. The same report obtained by TechCrunch added that only 43 percent of sites had no current plans to support the iPad. Although 19 percent either couldn't mention their plans in either direction, 38 percent either have a native app or page or will by the end of next year. Most of those will have theirs ready sooner, by the end of 2010.
Regardless of approach, Apple's devices are also the most supported for mobile content: 65 percent of developers plan to cater to the iPhone, but only about 40 percent want to serve Android and BlackBerry. Just over half, at 53 percent, plan to serve up a universal stream that should theoretically serve most or all of their visitors.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2008
It's pretty fast...
Much faster when clicking on objects than most of the photography Flash sites I visit, but it may be due more to coding skills than merely because it's HTML5. Anyway, this is the experience I'm looking for as a user. I can't say about all that underlying stuff that's needed by developers for statistics and security that Flash supports. If developers can design Flash sites with that speed I'd have no problem with using Flash. I just want the content quickly and effortlessly no matter what delivery system is used.
With the video, it used about as much processing power as I'd normally see with the latest Flash plug-in but it certainly handled the perspective and mask very quickly which I'd never seen used before. I hope a lot of developers or site owners see the HTML5 demo and consider the possibilities. I hope there is a continuous movement toward HTML5 if this is what it can do for the mobile platform.