Kendo UI: 2014 Mobile Survey Report: HTML5 vs Native Debate

Kendo UI’s investigation yielded several key conclusions:

• There is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution for mobile app development. Whether using hybrid, HTML5 or native, many developers find mid-project that the approach they took initially was not the best solution.
• Web and hybrid applications are becoming a hot trend
• Web platform (HTML5 & JavaScript) is the first choice for creating cross-platform applications

Still going down the same path? You’re out!

When people compare HTML5 to native SDKs, they generally think that HTML5 is at a disadvantage in these two aspects:

• APIs have limited access to phone features and services
• Performance has always been a problem criticized by some developers. The UI responsiveness and data loading speed are not as good as native applications.

However, we can also see that the gap between HTML5 and native applications in these disadvantages has been getting smaller and smaller in the past two years. The Kendo UI team recently developed two HTML5/Hybrid applications and presented them to other developers to judge which one is a native application and which one is a hybrid application. As a result, no developer made a correct judgment, and no one denied that the two applications were not native applications.

This survey shows that the gap between HTML5/Hybrid/Native is getting smaller and smaller , and the boundaries are becoming more and more blurred. This is not only reflected in the user experience of the application, but also in the development process: more and more developers realize in the middle of the project that there are other alternative ways to achieve the goal, and they will never stick to one path.

So what does this mean for most mobile developers? It means that developers need to abandon the narrow-minded ideas of which of the three is better, open your eyes, really figure out their respective advantages, and then keep trying in hybrid, HTML5 and native development, only in this way can you accurately judge which way is the best solution.

HTML5 development is popular, while native development is neglected

Although native development has inherent advantages such as high performance, access to all mobile phone functions, and offline use, it is full of difficulties during the development phase, such as long development cycles, limited supported devices, and uncertain launch times. This year's survey shows that more and more developers choose pure HTML5 to develop cross-platform applications, while pure native applications are becoming less and less:

Whether it is HTML5 or native, suitability is king

When asked whether they switched to HTML5 app development midway through native app development, 40% of respondents said “yes”. When asked the other way around, 31% said “yes”. This ratio is similar, proving that whether it is HTML5 or native, as long as it suits your project needs, it is a good method.

Most are confident in HTML5 enterprise-level development

The ratios of choosing HTML5, hybrid and native development are becoming more and more balanced, but the rise of HTML5 in enterprise-level development is also very obvious. When asked to predict when HTML5 will be suitable for enterprise-level development, 31% of people answered "Immediately" and 26% believed it would be within the next year.

When asked how many applications they plan to develop using HTML5 by mid-2014, the majority of developers (34%) said 2-3, while 24% said 11 or more.

More than half of the business applications developed with HTML5 are B2C, with the majority being

What types of mobile applications do you develop using HTML5? More than half of the respondents chose Business apps, accounting for 57%, while Finance and Productivity apps each accounted for 21%. In addition, education, social, medical and other applications also accounted for a high proportion.

So what specific business applications did developers develop? 64% chose public B2C applications, followed by B2E applications at 49%.

HTML5 has become the first choice for cross-platform development

As more and more users shift from desktop/Web to mobile, 53% of them choose to use HTML5 to create cross-platform applications. It can be seen that HTML5 has become the first choice for cross-platform mobile development.

Most people think that mixed development can save a lot of costs

The survey shows that 35% of developers use HTML5&JavaScript to develop web applications, while hybrid applications and native applications each account for 16%.

In addition to ease of use, cost is also an important factor that developers must consider. When asked how much time and labor costs you think hybrid application development can save compared to native applications, 50% of respondents believe that it can save 40%-70% of costs.

in conclusion

Facts speak louder than words. HTML5/Hybrid is indeed becoming the choice of more and more mobile developers, but it is by no means the only choice in the future. We should recognize that HTML5, hybrid and native technologies all have their own advantages, and we cannot simply think that HTML5 is good or native is good. What we should do is to choose the best solution according to our needs, positioning and budget.

via:evget