We just converted the last of our Flash graphics over to HTML5 on the Dialogic website. The difference is not discernible, as you can see below. But it got me to think more about HTML5 and its impact on the industry.

The biggest impact of converting our website to HTML5 is that it can now be viewed on Apple devices. We know the stats on how many people access our website from a mobile device, and from which kinds of mobile devices. And we needed to make sure Apple devices could see our entire website. Prior to the conversion to HTML5, these main “banners” could not be seen on Apple devices, but the rest of the site could be seen.

Taking this a step further, it means “choices” don’t need to be made by developers of apps or websites. The website or app can be based on HTML5 and not have to be tied to the operating system of the phone or tablet. This is huge since we’ve had all of these mobile device “operating system wars” the past few years where it’s all about market share of the mobile OS. We had these wars since choices by developers needed to be made, including which app stores get which apps.

One obvious conclusion is that phone vendors, who in recent years gained immense strength over consumers because it was all about what apps ran on what phones and where one had to go to go get these apps, could start to lose their power.  Maybe the “internet” itself now becomes the mechanism by which consumers go get their apps - just look for the app online and go get it. Or maybe the service providers can provide a value-add in this model, making this all easier for their subscribers, all the while reclaiming some of the power. So this could be profound. Or maybe we’re too far down the path of app stores and nothing will really change.