HTML5 vs Native - The hot contenders for total web domination and the great mobile debate
Over the past 6 months,I have heard so many conversations about HTML5 being slow, bad, has no future and people should not consider it. Some may be true and some are totally false. Let’s analyze this further in the below sections-
We know Facebook and LinkedIn changed their applications from HTML5 to Native (I personally liked the LinkedIn HTML5 app). You can refer to their reasons of why they changed in the links below.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/13/facebook-android-faster/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/17/linkedin-mobile-web-breakup/
The reasons mentioned in the above links were very valid due to nature of the business Facebook and LinkedIn has with its customers. They were having problems with-
1) Performance issues - Running out of memory
2) Smoothness of animations
3) Getting detailed information when things go wrong in production
All this was because both had millions of customers using and interacting with their app on a daily basis. The load/traffic was so heavy and performance was a major concern.
Just because these 2 companies dumped HTML5 and went native does not mean HTML 5 is dead because again
The nature of the business
The type of customers the app attracts
speed to market
are 3 VERY major things to consider before deciding on going the HTML5 or the Native way.
For example –
Let’s take a restaurant app. The sole aim of this app is just to show the different menu options they have. They don’t have any moving pictures or animations but have just static pictures of food. They also have their location displayed via Google maps API. If a customer wants to order something, he clicks on the phone number link, which immediately loads the phone number on your phone and you can call them.
With this being the case, they could go the HTML5/Hybrid approach and get this app to the market quickly. They don’t need to create 2 native apps one for iPhone and Android as it could be costly to them. Also, the people who use the app may be a fraction of that of Facebook and LinkedIn. Probably only users who know about the restaurant bother to download the app and look into it.
Similarly, let’s take an insurance app. Do insurance apps have customers like Facebook and LinkedIn? NO. People who have GEICO, State Farm, and Progressive etc. interact with only the specific app based on their insurance type. In these cases, HTML5/Hybrid approach could work for them.
Like this there are many examples where probably going Native would be time consuming (for whatever reason), costly and not well suited to the type of business.
Firefox OS
We talked about apps, now coming to OS. People are bashing the new Firefox OS and so many people told me that it is waste of energy and time. But, do they know that, their initial sales of their phones went out of stock within a few hours (again you can argue with me that they may have put up only small number of phones compared to Samsung and Apple for sale, but still this is better than not any phone getting sold at all). Check this link out
http://www.slashgear.com/firefox-os-developer-phones-sell-out-in-matter-of-hours-23278943/
At least based on the specs, the 2 phones Keon and Peak have relatively decent specs compared to other phones in the market currently. Also, since this is a developer version, it gives more flexibility to play with your phone and make it work as you want it.
In fact T-Mobile, Sprint and other carriers/partners have already decided to release phones with Firefox OS. Check out the list of partners here
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/partners/
SUMMARY
So, to summarize, don’t write off anything as useless especially technology. If we do, then we are the most ignorant people on earth as we have seen time and again, how disruptive technology/companies like Dropbox, Samsung Galaxy line of phones, Instagram gave other people the run for their money (Literally!!!!).
I just wanted to write about this, to get these thoughts out of my mind. Let me know what you think about this or have any feedback.