Google I/O 2011: HTML5 versus Android: Apps or Web for Mobile Development?

Reto Meier, Michael Mahemoff

Native apps or mobile web? It's often a hard choice when deciding where to invest your mobile development resources. While the mobile web continues to grow, native apps and App Stores are incredibly popular. We will present both perspectives in an app development smackdown.

[rizchelsea]

Good debate.Got lot information from your discussion.

[LuigiAgosti]

I think Gwt with html5 is the solution to pursue
Falling back to native in case is too bad from a user prospective
thanks to Reto and Michael, awesome talk

[marecektn]

all Google IO talks are just ASTONISHING! If only I had 120 hours of free time full of concentration :)

[VEGETADTX]

No man, I didn't say there should be only one food to eat, only one thought in everybody's mind, only taste etc. Those things should stay diverse logically...as a matter of fact the more diverse food the healthier one is.

But when it comes to programming there is not a single benefit of having bunches and bunches of different languages, and bunches of different pipelines that utilize those languages in bunches of different ways COMPLETELY UNNECESSARILY, making it just harder for all of us.

[RickBeacham]

Good point. How much energy is used to develop an app on one platform compared to another platform. If you look at Game Development on consoles it can take significantly longer while a flash based one is much shorter. But is the end user experience that same? No. The console is usually better. But in the case with flash it can do the same thing but with less energy in development. So it really depends on your target audience. Flash is great solution but not for all users.

[xxwoman]

I wish this channel was available on ROKU! :D

[SpectatorAlius]

@sleepysonic Sounds like a feature to add to HTML5 video support: closed captioning!

[ThomasHauck]

Michael Mahemoff is the author of Ajax Design Patterns.

[Riofriosful]

$("#section") refers to an element with id "section". However, the slide refers to an element with _tag name_ "section".

[RickBeacham]

Yes i see what you are saying. Unity3d can provide a great user experience but html5 is accessible to much more platforms and you can write apps much easier. Unity3d also has other technologies that compete with it such as Gamebryo and even openGL ES. The amount of energy developing for Unity apps for specific solutions is also higher. I really like Unity3d but i think a more compelling idea would be to intergrate html5 into unity game engine. YOu can request CGI programs in unity i think.

[SurachetMonchawanon]

for the slide should be $("section"), I think .. for html tag selector

[dudds]

it really depends on what you want to do. basic apps ie storing info and what not html5 no excuse. high intense graphic applications with opengl and what not native.

[alkoxy]

do web view apps support the android intent framework?

[RickBeacham]

I use some apps only through the browser since they don't need access to my phones data. But i would rather use the native apps. How can the acccess rights be restricted on a 'as needed bases' during of which we could grant access to the native app for each request. I wonder if there is a google maps api for c and C++?? Good presentation.

[lnostdal]

It's happening. see NaCL ("Google Native Client"); it will run on ARM and mixes with HTML5.

[Ouyk]

When it comes to software, I'm an early adopter. I'm using Chrome 20.0.1096.1 dev-m and it apparently randomly puts some users in the HTML5 YouTube beta program. I went to the YouTube HTML5 page and opted out. Now I can view videos without stuttering on my Athlon XP using Flash 11.2. Perhaps they should query whether a computer is dual core or higher?

[MohamedElsaka]

Great,
But can we calla native java functions from HTML5 application?
I think this may be applicable if android supports local server that we can relay on!
and ideas ?

[Anders]

Android and iOS development is excellent as a forerunner for HTML5. And maybe that's why Google launched Android in the first place. But still, it's actually like old PC software to have to install and upgrade applications on different OSs. Notice that they conveniently skipped that part in the presentation. ;-)

[dmg]

GWT was the real unsung hero in this talk! :-)

[oneminutetomidnight]

@sleepysonic CC is working for me. Try again maybe? ;p