PPK in February:
The iPhone has become an obsession. If we don’t pay attention, we’ll have a mobile web that only works on the iPhone. And then we’ll have the real mobile web that wasn’t made by us and doesn’t give a shit about web standards and best practices.
Sure, the iPhone doesn’t have the biggest marketshare among devices, but it does have over 50% of estimated worldwide smartphone traffic. I believe this is because the iPhone’s Mobile Safari delivers an ideal browsing experience. This experience, though, is provided by WebKit, an open source project which several groups contribute to. The WebKit project has led the way in innovating mobile development, with HTML5 support, CSS3 extensions, and touch events. From the project’s goals:
The project’s primary focus is content deployed on the World Wide Web, using standards-based technologies such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript and the DOM. However, we also want to make it possible to embed WebKit in other applications, and to use it as a general-purpose display and interaction engine.
The best part of WebKit is that it’s open source and not limited to the iPhone. WebKit is also found in a few Apple devices not listed in AdMob’s report (as they’re not smartphones) like the iPad and iPod Touch. WebKit also powers the browser in Google’s Android. According to AdMob’s April report, there are over 52 million active users of Mobile WebKit, when looking at current iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android devices.
PPK seems equally dismissive of Android, only mentioning it once in his article:
Oh, and don’t bring up Android. Yes, it’s an excellent system, and yes, it could have a bright future ahead of it, but right now it doesn’t amount to anything in the global market.
PPK’s article was posted in February, but contrasts with AdMob’s stats from the month before. In January, Android represented 21% of worldwide traffic — Second only to iPhone OS, which had 50%. Together, that’s 71% of worldwide smartphone requests. In the US, this number went up to 86%. Currently, Android is shipping in over 160,000 phones a day, up from 60,000 in February. To me, this amounts to something big.
Android’s not alone, either. WebKit is also found in HP’s webOS (formerly Palm’s) and is expected to be implemented in a variety of touch-enabled tablet devices like the iPad. Even RIM is diligently working on their WebKit browser, which is already being demoed.
PPK takes an admirable position: One web, accessible to all. After all, isn’t that what web standards are all about? In an ideal world, sure, we would deliver a fantastic, top-of-the-line experience to all of our mobile users — but, let’s face it, this is near impossible. If we’re to program our mobile sites and web apps as progressive enhancements, derived from the lowest common denominator, they will never be on par with the immersive, native experiences that these new devices have to offer.
Sure, it could be considered irresponsible to say, program your site to work on the iPhone and call yourself a mobile expert. But if you can quickly develop a amazing experience tailored for mobile WebKit, why shouldn’t you? In addition to providing an immensely better interface for over 90% of your users, you’re learning the skills of tomorrow’s smartphones and tablets.
