HTML5, Enterprise Mobility and Visual Effects

This week let’s explore an additional feature of HTML5 used for visual effects, and how it can be used by developers of mobile applications. HTML5’s Canvas capabilities allow for smooth animation and impressive visual effects.  Mobile business intelligence apps, mobile marketing campaigns, mobile product catalogs, CAD drawings, Maps, blueprints, etc, could all benefit from these features.

Canvas is basically a region in your web page where you can use JavaScript to draw whatever you’d like. It has no content and border of its own, but has HTML5 code-defined height and width attributes. From the W3C standard: “The canvas element provides scripts with a resolution-dependent bitmap canvas, which can be used for rendering graphs, game graphics, or other visual images on the fly  (http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html#the-canvas-element)." 

Sybase shared at SAPPHIRENOW 2011 that SUP (sybase unwired platform) version 2.1 would be largely based upon HTML5.  They also shared that many of their new mobile applications will be taking advantage of HTML5 and features like Canvas.

Browsers currently supporting the canvas element are: Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Opera, and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Some anticipated uses of canvas include building graphs, animations, games and image composition.

Software vendors are already taking advantage of these features.  Here is an example - On August 1, 2011, Adobe released a preview version of an HTML5 development tool, Adobe Edge. It seems to be Adobe’s early answer to the Apple mobile device problem with Flash. Adobe announced on Tuesday, August 2, that Edge was downloaded over 50,000 times in the first 24 hours. The preview version can be found here: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/edge/.

According to PC Magazine, “Edge has a definite focus on the mobile Web—the fastest growing segment of Internet use—as shown in the tool's inclusion of the WebKit browser engine, which powers today's dominant mobile platforms: Apple iOS, Android, WebOS, and Blackberry. Despite this focus, the tool will also be able to create content for traditional desktop browsers that support HTML5, such as Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 9, and Safari.”

Several websites offer applications, games, tools and tutorials for the HTML5 canvas element:
Previously published articles on HTML5

More on HTML5 for Mobile Application Developers
What Can HTML5 Offer Mobile Developers?
HTML5 - What I am Learning
Projections for and Demonstrations of HTML5

Upcoming Events

Field Mobility 2011 - October 25 - 27, 2011
Enterprise Mobility Exchange - November 2 - 3, 2011

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Mobile Adoption Among Gas and Electric Utilities
Mobile Adoption in Life Sciences
Mobile Adoption in Oil and Gas
Networked Field Services

Recorded Webinars of Note

3 Critical Considerations for Embracing Mobile CRM
The Future of Enterprise Mobility
Healthrageous Mobility Case Study
The Latest m-Business Trends and How the Onslaught of Mobile Devices Affects Development Strategies
The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise:  The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access
Syclo and SAP Deliver Mobile Apps on Sybase Unwired Platform

Ruggedized and Industrial Mobile Device Articles

Consumer Smartphones or Industrial Smartphones?

*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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