Mobile devs will 'soon be fed up of native app stores', reckons HTML5 specialist Tylted

Owain Bennallack | 14:20 - 12 December 2012

I tend to agree that apps and by extension app stores are a weird evolutionary throwback that won't last.

If they do it won't be for technical reasons, rather something like ease of monetisation or (relatively) superior discoverability, compared to the open Web.

Fraser Ross MacInnes | 10:08 - 11 December 2012

I think that's the important point here - HTML5 is a markup language that can be used to make, among many other things, games. It's not a platform in and of itself and it certainly isn't limited to the web. It's certainly not set to disrupt the current native app paradigm in any significant way I don't think, even though it may be used to build more titles.

Jon Jordan | 23:07 - 10 December 2012

GREE and DeNA are doing good business with HTML5 games even if published through app stores

Fraser Ross MacInnes | 13:42 - 10 December 2012

I don't agree. The problem with this is it is a strategy focussed on solving developer/publisher problems and not user problems. Users don't care that HTML5 makes development cheaper or cross platform deployment simpler, they just want great content. They have shown over 30 billion times on iOS alone that they really don't mind using application stores to download apps, so HTML5 or mobile optimised web games are going to have to offer something very special to tear them away from that deployment paradigm. Also, let's not forget, HTML5 can be used to ease cross platform development pain in the native world too, so that's not a benefit limited to web-based content.

I do think a solid HTML5 marketplace that sits on your home screen as an alternative to the app store would be nice, but only where the content can go toe to toe with native apps and only where the service (billing, Game Centre etc.) is also comparable - and that's a tough nut to crack.