HTML5 is a language for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. HTML5 will enable a more open & democratic mobile web. HTML5 is the latest innovation of the Web.
Mobile application is an application software, developed for Mobile phone, whereas a web application is an application that can be accessed over the World Wide Web.
The emergence of HTML5 promises to level the playing field between mobile apps & web apps for mobile devices. The growing adoption of HTML5 as the primary programming language for mobile development is poised to alter the present balance of power between mobile apps & web apps. The incredible advantages of the Web will prevail over the native app model. The transition comes at a time when the mobile revolution is driving huge growth in markets like India.
HTML5 adds rich functionality to browsers. Therefore, web apps running in a browser can match the functionality or it could even replace native mobile apps. More and more apps are actually being built in HTML5 with a native wrap around them. For example, the Google+ app for iOS is running on HTML, but it is packaged as an app so it can be distributed from the app store.
HTML5 can create huge efficiencies for publishers on the web, because it lets companies develop once and distribute it across any device via an Internet browser. HTML5 development will save billions of dollars in development costs. However, the real challenge for developing mobile web apps is testing. It is very difficult to automate testing across real-life mobile devices.
Web app is faster than native app and offers more content, including videos. The web app can work offline but content is automatically updated, unlike native apps. Native apps are great in a number of ways but they are like different islands. Whereas, a web app is a part of the Web and so it is easier to take advantage of the link economy. The skills required for HTML5 development is less specialist than native mobile app development. HTML5 apps are searchable in Search engines, ensuring that the apps can be discovered by a huge audience.
HTML5 breaks down the barriers between apps and the mobile Web and saves the cost of creating apps for each platform like iPhone, iPad, Android phone, Android tablet, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile. i.e., HTML5 will simplify the business of creating mobile apps.
Gartner has predicted that, by 2015, mobile web technologies will have advanced sufficiently, so that half the applications that would be written as native apps in 2011 will instead be delivered as Web apps.