Let's settle it, HTML5 Apps are what we are going to call it
alexkessinger.net
alexkessinger.net
That's not to say that a tremendous amount of UX + graphic design, development, and testing are involved - they are, which I celebrate.
But I'd like to suggest that the end product of "HTML 5" app development (assuming any HTML 5 is involved at all) more closely resembles mobile development than desktop application development. I'm uncomfortable with the notion that browser + Javascript-based applications should be considered on-par, feature-for-feature, experience-for-experience replacements for desktop applications written in native code for specific operating systems.
Please don't get me wrong - I'm not attempting to channel a neo-luddism, or pining for the days of Swing and QT. There are tremendous advancements being made in the browser. But browser-based applications are constrained to running inside a browser. Development for browsers is painful and wildly inconsistent, unless papered over by frameworks we all love like jQuery and Prototype. We're heading closer to native implementations of animation and media-related functions, but are still years from any sort of standardization. Even companies heralding the era of HTML5 + JS + standards...well, fragrantly undermine their points by releasing single-browser demos and calling it "universal" (see Apple and the recent HTML5 demo flap).
I look forward to the day when web and browser-based development are a breeze. But until then, I'd feel much more comfortable referring to such endeavors as "web apps" and "web sites" than "applications" in the desktop sense.
Exhibit A: Gmail. Yes, it's a website, and doesn't use "HTML5" yet, but it does rival desktop applications. People prefer it over desktop applications.
When I say application I mean it in that sense. People aren't creating Skype in the browser, yet, check out http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-device/ for more on that, but people are building useful pieces of software that have become intertwined with their life.
If you grant me that people might use some websites more then they use desktop applications, then I assume we are having merely a semantic argument which is a different matter. Though, I imagine it would be difficult to put aside the fact that people use websites like they use desktop applications.
Even as fun as this is, the argument about whether or not to call these things applications has past. With things like Chrome App Store(https://chrome.google.com/webstore), the debate has been lost. The industry has decided, I merely want to voice my support for the term HTML5 Apps, as PPK has on Quirksmode.