The last couple of posts have looked at apps and their viability as options for dissemination of content across multiple platforms. My lens on apps is (naturally) focused on their utility for publishers, but even in a broader environment, the rise of HTML5 presents alternatives.
The opportunity was recently captured by Ben Bajarin, who posted on Time magazine's Techland blog:
Web developers … are taking a hybrid approach to software development. That means they are writing the application in HTML5 + Javascript but wrapping all that code in a layer that lets it be installed as a native application from an app store as well.
This approach is less "either-or" than my last two posts, and that's probably a good thing. I don't see apps as a long-term solution for most periodical publishers, but those who do pursue them can balance the "walled garden" against the more portable approach embodied in tools like HTML5 and Javascript.
