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    HTML5 Achieves Some Real Momentum

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    HTML5 Reaches Mainstream Tipping Point

    In an ideal world, every organization would have the resources needed to write and support an application running natively on every mobile computing device. However, because such a world doesn’t exist, it’s only natural that we’re beginning to see a mass adoption of the HTML5 markup language across the mobile computing spectrum.

    Despite some widely misinterpreted comments concerning HTML5 made recently by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, a new survey of 4,000 developers conducted by the Kendo UI division of Telerik, a provider of application development frameworks, finds that HTML5 is finally seeing mainstream adoption. A full 63 percent of them are developing applications using HTML5 today, and 94 percent of them will be using it by the end of the year.

    While HTML5 has been criticized for forcing developers to sacrifice controls that are unique to any given mobile computing platform, open source projects such as Apache Cordova have helped developers work around those limitations. The fact is, says Todd Anglin, chief evangelist for Telerik, that unlike large companies such as Facebook, which can afford to develop native applications for every mobile computing platform, the vast majority of organizations can’t afford to take on that gargantuan of a challenge. HTML5 allows organizations to support a broad swath of mobile computing applications in a way that allows them to utilize expertise and code across those platforms.

    Most recently, Telerik has extended the ability of its Kendo UI framework to work with Java server-side wrappers, which make it easier to integrate mobile computing applications based on HTML with enterprise applications written in Java. That’s critical because most enterprise applications in their current form do not lend themselves easily to mobile computing devices.

    As is the case with any application development project, time and money are in short supply. The demand for mobile computing applications is particularly acute because businesses of all sizes have fallen in love with everything from the Apple iPad to the latest Surface offerings from Microsoft. In a world where no one can be sure what the next great trend in mobile computing is actually going to be, HTML5 provides a much-needed higher level of abstraction that at the very least limits compatibility concerns to the browser rather than the underlying hardware.

    Mike Vizard
    Mike Vizard
    Michael Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist, with nearly 30 years of experience writing and editing about enterprise IT issues. He is a contributor to publications including Programmableweb, IT Business Edge, CIOinsight and UBM Tech. He formerly was editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise, where he launched the company’s custom content division, and has also served as editor in chief for CRN and InfoWorld. He also has held editorial positions at PC Week, Computerworld and Digital Review.

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