Will HTML 5 do away with Android programming?

[Benjamin Weaver]

I have a fair amount of experience in Java/JVM programming but just about two days' worth using the Android 4 platform, with ADT on Eclipse. It is a very interesting platform.

The number of participants on this platform might be indicative but nevertheless I will ask my questions:

1. Will demand for apps written on the Android platform (the Java + XML layouts, etc.) continue or increase, or will (somehow) HTML 5 pages
replace Android-specific apps?

2. Will cpu-intensive operations continue to be crunched on phones using the Dalvik interface, or might they be farmed off to be done elsewhere on the grid with increasing frequency in the future?

Any perspectives, however brief, are greatly appreciated!

Ben Weaver

[Bear Bibeault]

As someone who writes those HTML5 web apps for mobile devices my perspective is: no. As increasingly capable as mobile browsers are getting, there's a big gap between what can be done in native apps versus web apps constrained by the browser. This applies to iOS as well as Android.

Whether that can change in the future is anyone's guess; but I do not think that tipping point is imminent.

[Ulf Dittmer]

#1: Agree with Bear: I see apps moving from hybrid (part web, part native) towards ever more native, not the other way around. Native code gains capabilities much faster than even the most recent HTML variants.

#2: Depends on what you mean by "CPU intensive". Modern mobile devices already have two cores, and some even four. Those can do a lot processing, and efficiently so with support of something like RenderScript for Android.

[Benjamin Weaver]

Thanks a lot, Bear and Ulf. These observations are very helpful.

Ben