Microsoft, Apple & Google Agree: “The Future Of The Web Is HTML5"
05/03/2010
2010 is shaping up to be a big year for HTML5. Apple and Google have been advocates, and now software giant Microsoft is joining in. When Internet Explorer 9 comes out, it will support HTML5 and with its overwhelming dominance help make it common across the web (thunderous applause can actually be heard in the background if you hold the internet to your ear).
“The future of the web is HTML5. Microsoft is deeply engaged in the HTML5 process with the W3C. HTML5 will be very important in advancing rich, interactive web applications and site design. The HTML5 specification describes video support without specifying a particular video format. We think H.264 is an excellent format. In its HTML5 support, IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only.” writes Dean Hachamovitch, the general manager for IE at Microsoft. H.264 can play directly in an HTML5 browser, such as IE9, Safari, or Chrome without the need of a Flash plugin (The guys over at Firefox have always been on top of their game, so we are willing to bet it won’t be long now until you see them release a version that supports HTML5 ) .
And, as Steve Jobs published in his “Thoughts On Flash”, H.264 consumes half as much battery in mobile devices:
To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.
Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.