HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
3
Chapter
HTML5
With the demand to produce cross-platform mobile applications, HTML5 has
never been so important to the mobile industry. It is one of the best candidates
for creating simple, yet feature rich applications that can be built and deployed
once to support every major smartphone handset and tablet device available
today.
The common misconception for HTML5-based applications is that they can be
slow, unresponsive, and do not live up to the speed and quality that users have
come to expect of native mobile applications. This is only half true, as you might
have seen from the previous chapter; it depends on the type of application
being built. For example, the Financial Times app available on the App Store
appears to be a native application. However, if you look closely, you will see that
the Financial Times app is simply the Financial Times mobile web app
(
app.ft.com
) wrapped in a WebView within the native app.
As you can see from Figure 3-1, both apps for the iPhone and Android look
similar. Putting aside several platform-specific enhancements brought out by the
UI, they are in fact the same application.
NOTE:
There is nothing wrong with building a web app and exposing it to
the various app markets using multiple phone web-based application
frameworks such as PhoneGap. It increases exposure for your application
and makes it more accessible to your users. Making your applications in
this way can also provide
you with an immediate
solution should the App
Store's terms and conditions change to not be in your favor.
