Cloud 9

In addition to its impact on mobile advertising, HTML5 is affecting mobile commerce as well. In particular, software developers creating mobile Web sites and applications related to mobile shopping and bar code scanning are taking advantage of the technology. For applications such as ShopSavvy, HTML5 is allowing its developers to include application-like functionality without having to re-release to iTunes every time the company wants to update the app. Additionally, it allows ShopSavvy to offer customized experiences to users based on their shopping behavior.

HTML5 is enabling open, cross-platform rich-media standards that will help brands’ and agencies’ display advertising achieve the compelling creative and reach across mobile devices they have been seeking. Apple contributed significantly to the growth of HTML5—first by refusing to let its iOS devices support Adobe Flash, then by launching its own rich-media mobile ad network, iAd. However, HTML5 is an open standard, and it will do for mobile what Flash did for online. One of the real benefits of HTML5 is its potential, in the long run, to standardize the highly fragmented rich-media universe, making it easier and more efficient for advertisers to engage consumers with even more immersive advertising experiences – across both PC and mobile – at scale.