HTML5 is already here (it's just not for desktop computers yet)

When the squid feels threatened, it shoots ink into the water, hoping to confuse and disorient predators. Something similar is happening now in the Network arena. Adobe and Microsoft have told us that HTML5 will come in 10 years. Apple tells us, “No, no, he's already here right now, take a look at our great HTML5 demonstrations (hmm, rather CSS3 + JavaScript)!”

The truth is that a split develops in the population of web browsers. On the desktop, Internet Explorer and Firefox occupy together more than 80% of the market. In Internet Explorer, support for the HTML 5 family of technologies is virtually non-existent , and Firefox is behind CSS3. And, in any case, there is a huge base of installed IE 6, 7, 8 on the desktop - in particular, in enterprises - and no sane application developer will develop desktop applications for enterprises that do not work in at least IE7. Excluding innovative companies that deploy the latest editions of Firefox, Chrome, and Safari for their employees, HTML5 technologies are still doomed to failure here.

But a completely different story on mobile devices. Product life cycles are much faster (people change their phone on average every 18 months ), and technologically, tablets, phones and touch devices practically live on another planet when it comes to their browser technologies. And this is because the browser, by default, on each device that is significant in the market, is based on Webkit.
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And now the web?

Those of us who follow the development of desktop browsers know that Webkit is an Apple browser's rendering engine (originally born from the KHTML KHTML browser (as noted by glazs , KHTML is the Konqueror browser engine), which was used by Google and then the Android team (branches at different points in time), as a mobile engine for Google. Previously, it was not very interesting, but only this year two more events occurred that made Webkit even more generally accepted. First, RIM announced that it will use Webkit as a rendering engine for the next generation of its browser (it floated out this year due to unofficial gossip). Secondly, HP acquired Palm (with its WebKit-based browser as part of webOS), and HP said that WebOS would be at the heart of the future HP tablet development strategy .

Now let's go back to the statement "all devices that are significant in the market." Android, iPhone, RIM together give about 90% of the activity of applications for smartphones . And about 60% of the market for all devices. In our last study among developers under Ext.JS (mainly focused on enterprise development): only 10% of people who plan to develop mobile applications plan to make them not available on smartphones.

What about other devices / browsers? Well, there Nokia - important outside the US - whose browser technology (also based on Webkit) is making progress, modifying its browser on Webkit, to support the HTML5 platform, but with a strong lag (actually behind). And although Opera shows itself perfectly on the desktop, Opera Mini for mobile devices seems to have made an unusual choice from an architectural point of view - to draw an image on the server side, sending proprietary markup to a mobile device.

That is the state of affairs, at least from my point of view. The HTML5 family of technologies is already here, in 2010, on all mobile devices that matter. A short life cycle means that the installation base will expand rapidly toward devices that support HTML5. And we have to say thanks to the WebKit development teams at Apple, Google, RIM and many others who have worked for us to get it now (and we hope that Mozilla Fennec will be joining the party soon!) We believe that the speed and capabilities of the device browsers Soon they will become one of the main motivations for choosing mobile devices for consumers.