Trends in Developing and Publishing Content: How HTML5 and Mobile Change the Game Greg Fagan, Sales Director Data Conversion Laboratory Publishing your content to multiple devices creates lots of options for your users to take their content with them and experience it in any format on any device. The flourishing mobile market permanently opened the door into communication and revenue-generating opportunities that didn t exist 20, 10 or even 5 years ago. Smartphones, tablets, and wearables such as smartwatches enable users to experience content anywhere at any time. And users are often vocal about their expectations. From companies that already provide mobile-accessible content to those that are just realizing it s time to embrace the trend, organizations can leverage an HTML5, future-ready solution, to deliver the content users demand.
What is the Current State of Mobile? To build trust in your brand and deliver great customer experiences, you must produce accurate, relevant and timely content and you must produce a lot of it. But you can t achieve this goal unless you know where your customers are. And audiences are leaving their old desktops in droves, in favor of mobile devices. The pie chart below incorporates data from Millennial Media s 2014 report on online content consumption. US Consumption of Online Content - 2014 12% 56% 56% 44% Smart Phones 44% Desktops 12% Tablets The term online used to mean available solely on a computer with an internet browser. Today the term continues to expand as quickly as the number of mobile devices that enter the market. As shown in the pie chart, 56% of online content in the US is now consumed via smartphones (44%) and tablets (12%), while just 44% is consumed on desktop computers. Streaming radio and games are almost all mobile, and social media and weather information aren t far behind. On the content creation side of the equation, plenty of content authors don t create content that displays and functions well on mobile devices, for example, because buyers may prefer viewing large images of products that are best displayed on a desktop computer. In fact, even though most people don t consume all content on a mobile device, cross-platform consumption is quite common. Those vocal consumers are looking for content that crosses platforms. Why Consider an HTML5 Solution? The data begins to make the business case for mobile content, but to be complete and convincing, your case needs solutions for cross-platform consumption. A code base that works across all platforms and devices not only meet the needs of the mobile marketplace, but also supports all other platforms and devices. That s why we recommend an HTML5 solution. According to VisionMobile, Developer Economics 2013 developers who write the code list seven key features of HTML5 that make it attractive to them and the content providers they support: What Drives Mobile Developers to using HTML5? Cross-platform code portability Low cost development Cross-screen code portability Learning curve Open source Reach Large Developer Community 33% 27% 25% 23% 19% 56% 51%
Cross-platform code portability and low-cost development top the list of benefits. Developers like to write a single code that will work everywhere, and content providers like the savings realized by developing one version that works across operating system and devices. In addition to more traditional development shops, many powerful and advertising firms have thrown their weight behind HTML5, and it is increasingly used in the hugely popular gaming market. You can choose from four main approaches to get your HTML5 solution to market. They all have a distinct advantage over native apps you might be familiar with (such as Angry Birds or Uber), which are written for specific hardware programs and stored locally thus requiring different versions based on operating system (Android or ios). HTML5 apps work across all platforms and devices. Mobile Browser Web apps or website tailored for mobile devices and running in a mobile browser Native Wrapper Web-to-native Converter Native JavaScript API Web apps packaged in a native wrapper and delivered through an app store Apps written in JavaScript and compiled to native code HTMLS apps written for platforms natively supporting it, such as Firefox OS, Windows 8, Chrome OS Current HTML5 Limitations and Recommendations for Maximum Value VisionMobile s 2013 survey went over 6,000 developers worldwide, supplemented by interviews with 32 top experts on HTML5 vs. native, analysis of more than 30,000 Android Play apps and evaluation of 42 HTML5 frameworks and tools. The results showed that 61% of the developers write code for mobile browsers, but 63% of US-based Android Play apps cannot be written in HTML5 based on lack of application programming interface (API) browser functionality. APIs are used in computer programming to provide standards and protocols that developers can use to create consistent web experiences. When the browser support catches up for power management and Wi-Fi APIs, the number of Android apps you could implement using HTML5 could grow to 58%. Of the developers who responded, 39% said they work with the other three options to get mobile to market. The research indicated that US Android apps can be implemented with HTML5 using these three options as follows: 49% with native wrappers 63% with web-to-native converters 98% with native JavaScript and 98% with native JavaScript HTML5 as a standard is still being built, so there are some limitations to consider until the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) completes the standard. In theory, HTML5 should work across all platforms and devices consistently, but in practice, it presents a technology challenge. The need to access more hardware, APIs and Wi-Fi can also pose a problem with limited resources. Even though HTML5 is still undergoing revisions, it demonstrates enormous potential as a future-ready technology as new iterations of the specification evolve. Fortunately, performance also continues to improve with each new generation of hardware and better JavaScript compilers. Perhaps a bigger challenge than technology exists in the form of the politics and competitive pressures around companies and device specificity. Although companies sometimes quickly implement the latest HTML5 standards, they often leave
out performance-related APIs. But consumer demand for adaptable mobile content and developers demand for the tools to code and deliver across platforms likely will result in vendor decisions to build in essential APIs. As a result of the survey, VisionMobile recommends the development of a standardized packaging solution for native JavaScript apps to be packaged once and deployed on any supporting platform. They also recommend a device identity API to alleviate privacy concerns, and a debug API to support a robust set of debugging tools. And developers should ensure they are educated about the real advantages and current drawbacks of HTML5. Top 10 Reasons to Mobilize Your Content with HTML5 One of the first steps in future-proofing your content is ditching Flash development, as it is rarely supported and continues to fade into oblivion. Flash was never supported on ios, and forcing users to continually install plug-ins just irritates them. Native apps still have a significant place in the market, but you should consider moving to HTML5 to create web apps. Here s why: 1. Low-Cost Development and Distribution HTML5 apps and sites, only need to be developed once, cost less and allow you to bypass app stores if desired. 2. Accessibility Semantics and ARIA are the two main factors in the improved accessibility of HTML5 sites. HTML semantic headings make it easy for screen readers to access content accurately and improve user experience. ARIA, a W3C spec, assigns specific roles to elements in HTML to create those essential signposts readers are used to (header, navigation or article). HTML5 is able to validate these attributes. 3. Video and Audio Support HTML5 tags for video and audio make content truly accessible, unlike the previous iterations of technology nightmares. The tags treat content as images, and attributes for height, width and autoplay can be coded. 4. Doctype Doctype provides instructions to browsers to indicate the HTML version. And with HTML5 development, doctype is all you need. No more cutting and pasting long, unreadable lines of code. 5. Cleaner Code Many developers are passionate about simple, elegant code that is easy to read, and HTML5 offers just that. It easily separates semantic meaning from style and content. 6. Smarter Storage HTML5 offers local storage, a cross between cookies and a client-side database. It enables storage across multiple windows and improves security and performance. 7. Better Interactions Developers have tons of useful APIs to choose from, including drag and drop, offline storage, browser history management, document editing and timed media playback. These APIs deliver superior interactions for users.
8. Game Development The <canvas> tag is key for game development. It provides a mobile-friendly way to develop games your users will find fun and interactive. 9. Legacy/Cross-browser Support Modern browsers support HTML5 (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE9 and Opera). HTML5 doctype was created to make things easier even in old browsers. 10. Geolocation New HTML5 geolocation APIs make location, whether generated via GPS or other methods, directly available to any HTML5-compatible browser-based application. Rapid development of mobile solutions means more and more users want content that is portable. HTML5 will replace Flash, so all mobile web app development will follow it as a framework. From companies already publishing mobile content to those who are ready to embrace the trend, users demand mobile content, and by getting it to them, you open the door into new markets. Resources Millennial Media/comScore Report: http://www.millennialmedia.com/press/cross-screen-studyreveals-70-percent-of-digital-users-access-internet-across-multiple-devices VisionMobile Report: https://www.developereconomics.com/reports/can-html5-compete-native/ HTML5 standard still under development http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/single-page.html
About Data Conversion Laboratory (DCL): DCL (www.dclab.com) is a leader in helping organizations grow the value of their content assets investment. With digitization and content management expertise across multiple industries including publishing, life sciences, government, manufacturing, technology and professional organizations, DCL uses its advanced technology and U.S.-based project management teams to help solve the most complex conversion challenges securely, accurately and on time. Founded in 1981, DCL was named to EContent's Top 100 Companies in the Digital Content Industry in 2014 for the fourth straight year. Connect With Us: https://www.facebook.com/dclab http://www.linkedin.com/company/dclab https://twitter.com/dclaboratory 61-18 190th St, Fresh Meadows, NY 11365 Phone: 718-357-8700 info@dclab.com www.dclab.com