HTML5 failing to find widespread adoption
Mobile web company Netbiscuits said that even though HTML5 is gaining ground in the smartphone market, “no more than four standard HTML5 features are supported by the majority of the top selling mobile devices.” Michale Neidhoefer, CEO of the company, said: “HTML5 is far from being the standard solution that mobile web and app developers are looking for when implementing rich UI features across multiple devices."
According to the company, of the 17 basic HTML5 features, only four (offline web application support, geolocation API, 2D animation rendering and web storage) are supported by a “clear majority” of the top 10 devices in North America. The other 13 are “only partly supported, or not supported at all, by top devices.”
While the trend in Germany, France, Spain and Singapore is similar to that in North America, the same is not evident elsewhere. Netbiscuits said “not a single HTML5 feature is supported by a majority of the top 10 devices” in the UK, while Australia has also seen “little to no HTML5 adoption.”
The company also said that more than half of the requests made via its Netbiscuits platform came from smartphones, while in North America, the share was closer to 80 percent. Worldwide Apple’s iOS leads the way, while Android is number one in North America.
Of the other platforms, Microsoft’s Windows Phone, while still a “minor” platform at a global level, ranks fourth in North America. RIM’s BlackBerry market share is “holding steady,” in APAC, the Middle East and South America, but is on the slide in North America.