Has Google Helped Apple Win the Flash/HTML 5 Battle?
Steve Jobs once chided the world with an anti-Flash, pro-HTML5 thesis. It was a divisive essay, one that caused a lot of ire among Adobe evangelists and turned up the heat in the Apple vs. The World arena. Then something funny happened: People stopped caring, and the Apple App Store relaxed its restrictions. Then Google showed up with Chrome Web Apps, all of which just happen to be based on HTML5, which the company freely admits but doesn’t highlight. So what’s the bigger picture? Read on for some perspective …
Try this experiment: Open Safari, or any other HTML5 browser, and go to www.nytimes.com/chrome. You’re now enjoying the Chrome Web App in a non-Chrome environment. That’s because “downloading” a web app just means you’re placing a shortcut to an HTML5 web page inside your existing browser.
That’s really not such a big surprise. But here’s my point: Google has pushed development on the open HTML5 standard under the Chrome moniker and showcased it as though it’s just for Chrome OS, not for HTML5 in general. True, Google doesn’t hate on Flash, either, but the company has convinced people of the wonder of Chrome to the point where Chrome OS demos become lovefests over Google’s innovation.
Meanwhile, Apple took the position months ago that HTML5 — the same technology as Google Chrome — is the future of web development, even to the point of installing HTML5-supported browsers in all their devices, and people responded by taking out their pikes and pitchforks.
It should come as no surprise that Apple was ahead of the curve, but what gives on the wildly different reactions between Google Chrome and HTML5? They’re the same technology, and it seems that because Google demonstrated the power of HTML5, it was embraced, but when Apple asked developers to look at the new standard, it was shunned.
It feels an awful lot like there was less thinking about HTML5 and more concern over abandoning the beloved and sacrosanct Flash. Or maybe they took issue with the way Jobs went about espousing his views. Either way, it all comes down to marketing.
Meanwhile, all you Safari users can rest easy knowing that you’re not missing out on the Chrome OS extravaganza of web apps.
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