Steve Zuckerberg, Chief Executive of Facebook, admitted recently to wasting two years trying to develop the social network app using HTML5. He sees it as the “biggest mistake we made as a company,” and is now moving to developing the app with native mobile platforms.
For their iOS apps, Apple suggests app developers use their Coca Touch platform, but also supports HTML5 and hybrid apps. Some companies prefer the HTML5 so as not to have their apps relying solely on Apple's iOS, in order to also use the same essential app for a system like Android. However, web apps developed with HTML5 instead of a more native platform don't have the same performance.
This is why Facebook chose to use HTML5 for their app, yet anyone who has used the app until recently can tell you it was ridiculously slow on iOS. A better option was either utilizing a browser to do Facebook chores or using a different third-party app that promised Facebook abilities. Yet despite all this, the Facebook android app still hasn't made its debut yet.
Some in the industry have suggested that the HTML5 apps are the wave of the future, being that they could be used on any mobile platform. But with a bigwig like Facebook already abandoning it and recognizing it as a mistake, that just doesn't seem to be in the cards. It seems as if many will soon take the same road as Facebook, and abandon HTML5 in favor of native platforms.
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