Working with questions on HTML5 – one at a time

I just spent a week and a few days in environments that are not the web savvy folk I normally hang out with – Mobile World Congress and CEBIT - and it was fascinating.

What fascinated me was not only that the technology approach there is totally different from ours – I was most amazed just how skewed the view of HTML5 in these environments is. Repeatedly I had to answer questions that were not of technical nature but actually simple regurgitations of either marketing BS about HTML5 or marketing BS against HTML5. In any case, it was mostly about blanket statements and in order to keep my sanity I thought I answer a few here.

So here are a few of the questions I repeatedly got and I will go and answer them from my point of view in a series of posts:

• Is HTML5 ready yet, and if not, when can we use it?
• Is HTML5 the Flash killer?
• When will we get HTML5 tools?
• HTML5 means you always have to be online, right?
• How can I protect HTML5 content?
• Will HTML5 ever match native performance?
• Will HTML5 ever have great UX like native solutions have?

All in all I found that most of the questions were about immediate implementation. There seems to be not much tinkering going on in the mobile world. People expect SDKs, IDE integration and defined ways to build and distribute apps. The main goal is to make money, build one thing and have it as a revenue stream. Or to build something, cause a quick hype around it and move on quickly to the next one. There is not much time to wait for technology to evolve and things to change. And that clashes with a few HTML5 ideas. Exciting times.