Recently, Financial Times announced the development of its HTML5 based app, which can be used on iPhone and iPad without making any payments to Apple as it bypasses Apple’s App Store. This has led to discussions over the threat posed by HTML5 to App Store. 30% of the revenue generated on App Store goes to Apple and any threat to this model could have serious repercussions for the company. This is ironic because Apple itself had been supporting HTML5 so far. Last year in April, Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, had announced that iPads and iPhones will not run on Adobe Flash, and instead the company would make use of HTML5 based technologies for games and videos.
The app developed by Financial Times proves that it is possible to break Apple’s strong commercial grip over iPhone and iPad with this technology. But most commercial developers depend on Apple’s App Store to be discovered by consumers. Financial Times’ decision to bypass Apple has put it in an unusual spot. Many apps at App Store are purchased on an impulse, but since the Financial Times app is not available there, it is likely to miss out on such impulse sales.
Since the invention of the world wide web, HTML has been driving it forward. The presence of such standards ensures that the content on a majority of websites runs on all the browsers. HTML5 is simply the latest update of this language. Although it is scheduled for W3C’s (World Wide Web Consortium) official approval in 2014, many developers will understandably want to use the latest technology, especially if it has hidden benefits like the one leveraged by Financial Times.