HTML5 to Replace Apps? Not in My Lifetime

HTML5 may be here to stay, but the mobile app model isn't going anywhere either.

I believe in HTML5. I think that anything that can be developed with it on the UI side probably should. There's a question whether most things can, but that's a different debate.

What I do find ridiculous is the notion of skipping an app altogether for an HTML5 website.

The guys at Vision Mobile explain it best in this simple slide (taken from here):

HTML5 is missing a lot of infrastructure required for an app store. Essentially – there's no monetization, distribution and retailing – all the components that web developers need as incentives to write their apps.

I'd add to that one simple fact: people like owning things.

If you go to a web page to get a service, then how can you make it your own?

If on the other hand, you selected an app of a service, and downloaded it, isn't that your app now?

There's probably a way to get URLs from the web and paste them as "web apps" on your smartphone. I heard that a couple of times, but I haven't seen anyone really doing that. I don't. And somehow, I am sure no one in my extended family even knows the meaning of this thing.

Apps are here to stay. They are the new consumption models in devices – mobile or not.

HTML5 may be a good UI technology for cross platform development, but it is no app-killer.