Digital Lifescapes

Mobile devices with HTML5-compatible browsers will total 1.4 billion in 2013, following an annual increase of 87 percent, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Although the installed base of this size represents a very potent market for mobile application developers, in practice the vast majority of them continue to choose the native app model over the web for their releases. "While some two years ago it still looked like 2013 could be the Year of Web App, it’s now looking like that this will prove more like the Year of Hybrid" said Aapo Markkanen, senior analyst at ABI Research . HTML5 is making strides, but mainly through developers that take advantage of increasingly capable cross-platform development tools. Meanwhile, there aren’t many signs of full-blown web apps effectively challenging the native way. However, ABI believes that two parallel trends will help the web to catch up further. First, it’s expected that the support for HTML5 features ...

Smartphone subscribers around the world will download about 36 billion mobile phone apps in 2012, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. This activity equates to almost 37 native apps for the average smartphone subscriber through the year. The forecast reflects a nearly 6 percent global increase to the 35 apps downloaded per smartphone subscriber on average during 2011. Despite the apparent market growth since 2011, Aapo Markkanen, senior analyst at ABI Research , believes the average download count will not increase substantially over the coming years. Rather, it is more likely to start decreasing. Markkanen explains, "When forecasting on app downloads one has to make a number of assumptions on -- for instance, the device mix, developer activity, and the demographics of existing and future smartphone users." The next waves of smartphone subscribers in the more mature app markets of the United States, Western Europe, and parts of Asia will be downloa...

According to the the latest market study by ABI Research , more than 2.1 billion mobile devices (such as smartphones and media tablets) will have HTML5 browsers by 2016 -- that's up up from just 109 million in 2010. While the official position from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is that the HTML5 mark-up language standard will not be complete until 2020, ABI believes that 25 HTML5 features currently in development will become widely used at varying intervals within the next three to five years. "We expect HTML5 features in categories such as graphics, multimedia, user interactions, data storage, and others to be widely adopted sooner rather than later. A significant number of HTML5 features will be adopted in the mass market in the next three to five years," says Mark Beccue, senior analyst at ABI. HTML5 adoption is going to accelerate because it will be a key differentiator in the smartphone operating system competitive race to world dominance. Moreover, Appl...