HTML5 500 Days

Absrtact: 2013 was HTML5 's worst year in China, but until now few people have been rethinking this bleak source. The prevalence of the experience economy, so that the user experience first became the internet company's iron discipline. All walks of life also put the user experience on the tip of the tongue, can

The 2013 was HTML5 's worst year in China, but until now few people have been rethinking this bleak source. The prevalence of "experience economy" makes "user experience Supreme" become the discipline of internet company iron. All walks of life also put the user experience on the tip of the tongue, but in the HMTL5 practitioner's thinking, the user experience was deliberately ignored or even become "some kind of excuse."

HTML5 500 Days

The global heat of the 2012 HTML5 was quickly transmitted to China, and the industry sparked a big debate about who died in the 3 or 5 years of Web apps and native apps. But it never occurred to me that when the HTML5 topic was in China's hottest days, there were bad news in Europe and the United States, and many big-name HTML5 supporters were turning back: such as Facebook's recognition of the HTML5 mobile strategy, the Apple App Store's refusal to act as a package web App distribution channel, and so on.

Soon, the national strength of the Web app and HTML5 of the pioneers have died down, a few of the then VC favored HTML5 start-up companies in 2013 was forced to transform or even dissolved. It was not until the 500 days of 2014 that a HTML5 "nervous cat" once again appeared to break this pessimistic trend.

Typically, the "user" requirement is placed in a particular "business" logic, and then the specific "technology" is chosen to be implemented, both from user Business Tech. In other words, technology is the base of the underlying, business logic based on technology implementation, user requirements by the commercial logic packaging after the technical satisfaction. In the case of HTML5, however, the technical logic has become a priority, with the guise of user demand to meet the business needs of the aspirant. These pretence and lies are summed up to include the following 4 aspects:

Lie one: When users use a native app to search the App store, the process is cumbersome and unfriendly.

Answer: If users do not want to go to the App Store search, do you expect to go to the mobile browser like a PC Search web App? Mobile browsers are important, but there is no way to compete with iOS and Android in the ecology of users ' desktops.

Lie two: Native app updates frequently, and users get bored with updates.

Answer: App's update process has been fully optimized by App Store and many phone assistants, and user habits have been developed. In addition native app's update represents a better user experience and more new system features to join, and constantly improve the user experience. For web App "weak function" and "weak experience" attribute, it is difficult to rely on the so-called no manual update advantage to get users.

Lie three: Download and update the native app consumes traffic, and the traffic costs affect the user's use

Answer: The problem of traffic in today's network environment has no longer become a priority for users pain point, WiFi popularity even make large games and video app to get life. The current high quality native app is less than 10 trillion, and more than hundreds of trillion is a common phenomenon. In addition, based on actual results, the reuse of web app's mobile browser does not really reduce user traffic.

Lie four: Users are unwilling to download too many native apps

Answer: Users really do not want to download too many apps? How many apps are installed on average in a user's phone now? For apps with reusable requirements (even if it's a short-term need to reuse), users will not hesitate to download native apps. Although there is a large number of scenarios where users can open their mobile browsers to mobile search and then access mobile web, it is a traffic and low viscous demand, and if the Web app only embraces this low quality user demand, then the author has nothing to say. Current depth and stickiness user needs still need native app to satisfy.

To be a HTML5 and a HTML5 man.

The so-called "from the user point of view" of HTML5 and web App advocates are designed to get away from the iOS and Android ecosystem and look for excuses to return to the PC Web-era free flow model. At least in the current cloud-pattern environment, native app represents more mature usage habits and a better user experience than web apps. There is no need to use a commercial logic to kidnap HMLT5 technology and user needs. If we analyze Zuckerberg's words "our biggest mistake is to gamble too much on HTML5", the real lesson should be:

"The ambition of HTML5 's business logic cannot be overridden by user needs and market conditions".

I never doubted HTML5. As a cross-platform development standard, it is destined to play a greater role over time. So what about abandoning business logic and trying to use HTML5 and web apps simply as technology?

Remember the 2004 before and after the rise of the internet in China, as the leader of the Xie once classified the Internet two categories of people, one is "do the Internet" people, a class is "Internet" people. Web2.0 The so-called Internet person is the internet itself as a business, and the Internet is the Internet as a channel. Similarly, HTML5 practitioners can also be divided into "do HTML5" and "use HTML5" person.

"Do HTML5": Here the bread includes HTML5 tools and platform vendors, game makers, Web app developers and channel vendors (such as micro-letters and mobile browsers)

"HTML5" people: with other businesses, HTML5 technology and web apps are used to showcase their business, using micro-letters, mobile browsers, etc. as users of one of the many traffic portals.

For the "Do HTML5" gambling ecology, the next step is still fully unknown and difficult, because game iOS and the Android ecosystem will not see a significant opportunity in the short term, to meet the dawn may be a long time. Even if micro-mail is a good channel for web apps, the big deal is the challenge of the lack of a wider range of premium web App providers (at least mobile browsers and search portals have been defeated in the first round of competition).

For people who "use HTML5", the choice is very simple. The internet is a traffic business, and the layout of the different traffic-flow portals is a smart choice. If there is enough budget, then native app, web app and micro-trust account even Baidu's light application light app can be covered to maximize the flow of traffic, which is the common practice of many internet companies with resources. Because from the "use" point of view there is absolutely no need to be like "do HTML5" group as the composition of gambling. Of course, if the budget is not enough, it is a more feasible option to micro-mail or native the app from a realistic perspective, since it is now a two-shaped ecosystem with a higher commercial value.

Technical perspective on Web apps and native apps

Tiana, head of the HTML5 dream factory, once said: "Take HTML5 and native than or flash than no meaning," the subtext "HTML5 is only technology, not commercial logic kidnapping." Next, look at the comparison between Web app and native app from three technical perspectives:

Page layout: HTML5 with CSS3 and canvas does have the advantage of efficiency and cost in the interface layout and presentation across platforms. The development technology of native app has a very big gap both in development time and personnel requirement and overall cost. But for a web/native app that can fully meet the user's needs, there are two more important technical requirements in addition to the interface layout, one of which is the capability API of the terminal device itself to call the End-to-end API, and the other is the cloud API called by many cloud capabilities APIs. So can these two aspects of HTML5 technology to meet the needs of the market and users?

The standard of the end API:HTML5 itself supporting the part of the device API, but unfortunately the development of the terminal and the operating system can not be described with each passing day, various new abilities emerge endlessly. Slow update and backward standards are completely unable to adapt to the development of the terminal to provide the latest end of the API, so it can be said that HTML5 in the end of the field of API has a greater disadvantage. If the HTML5 is simply limited to meet the needs of the users in some areas of the display class, it may be possible to correct the excessive expectations of the market for the HTML5 application range.

Cloud API: "Cloud Architecture" has been identified as one of the most specific trends in the Internet, a large number of services through the form of cloud APIs, in various fields have generated a large number of cloud API service providers. Common such as micro-credit and micro-blog sharing, Alipay mobile payment, cloud storage, etc., in addition, such as cloud IM instant Messaging, U.S.-contact mobile customer service and other apps commonly used in the way of cloud API to developers. In addition, many apps also encapsulate their services into another app, such as Uber, which, in the form of cloud APIs and Starbucks, embeds service extensions and more traffic. The cloud API not only simplifies app development but also enhances the ability to move apps.

In many cloud APIs, almost all of them provide both the native SDK and the JSSDK service native app and Web App. So in the Cloud API Domain HTML5 technology still has a lot of docking service to choose from. But overall, JS version of the SDK, whether from the function or experience and native SDK differences, such as Baidu Map cloud service API SDK, users use the embedded to the Web App JS version of the SDK using gestures to scale the map when the experience is usually poor. HTML5 differences in performance and native technology still depend on improved hardware and browser performance, but should be resolved within the expected time.

Web apps and native apps from the point of view of technology and user requirements, only the right and wrong, there is no so-called "life and death" problem. People who "use HTML5" can get away from the gambler's myth just by choosing the right technology according to their budget. And the real test is left to "do HTML5" people, with the further popularization of HTML5 technology and the maturity of supporting environment, market opportunities and how to grasp is the biggest variable.

In this environment, "Capital support, team formation, random and dynamic flexibility" is to survive and grow the foundation. HTML5 is getting hotter again, and the great debate over the life and death of Web apps and native apps has been discussed so much that there's no need to do it again. Developers who follow the "mobile Application development ecosystem" can always seize the opportunity to achieve the greatest return, the following will be analyzed in the "HTML5, mobile ecosystem How to change?" 》