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Mobile site design option D. HTML5

HTML5 blurs the line between sites and apps, and challenges the prominence and cash flow 

of the appstore hosts. Companies operating in the main sectors who were enthusistic adop-

ters of mobile – such as retail, packaged goods, travel, financial services, publishing – are 

turning to HTML5 ‘web apps’ in order to build once and target all mobile platforms at once. 

This is more  cost-  effective and less  labour-  intensive than building different native apps for 

iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry.

As Mini case study 11.3 shows, HTML5 web apps allows developers and publishers to 

circumnavigate the 30% commission charged by Apple and Google on app download costs 

and a further 30% on products and subscriptions sold ‘in-app’. Both costs can be eliminated 

with   HTML5-  based  sites.

From the technical perspective, HTML5 apps have some problems that native apps do 

not. HTML5 apps are typically slower than native apps and it is more costly to support a 

range of apps. FT.com still uses native apps for Android and Windows platforms.

Media Queries

A styling approach within 

Cascading Style Sheets 

(CSS3) enabling the 

layout to change based 

on type of device at its 

scale.

Mini Case Study 11.3

FT.com proves that HTML5 web apps are now providing clear benefits over OS-specific apps.

The success of the FT.com web app for iOS shows that developing mobile  platform-  specific apps isn’t 

the only option; in future, the dependence on app stores for each mobile native OS may seem quaint. The 

figures on digital publishing by FT.com a year after the app was launched certainly show the importance of 

mobile platforms for publishers:

● 

Digital subscriptions to the title, which operate behind a metered paywall, increased 31% year-on-year to 

more than 300,000.

● 

The number of registered users climbed 29% to 4.8 million.

● 

Mobile devices account for 25% of traffic to FT.com, while there are 2.7 million FT web app users.

FT.com adopts HTML5 for its iOS Web App

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