Microsoft Backs HTML5 Like Google and Apple

Apple and Google have been pushing HTML5 for a while now, and Microsoft is hopping aboard the bandwagon. When Internet Explorer 9 comes out, it will support HTML5 and help make it more common across the Web. “The future of the web is HTML5,” wrote Dean Hachamovitch, the general manager for IE at Microsoft in a blog post talking about Web video. Microsoft still supports Flash as well, but HTML5 and Flash are in a clash. By throwing it’s support toward HTML5, Microsoft is giving website designers one more reason to abandon Flash.

The post specifically talks about Microsoft’s plans to support only the H.264 codec of HTLM5 video. The Flash players now support H.264, but the more H.264 video is out there, the less need there will be for Flash players because those videos can play directly in an HTML5 browser, such as Internet Explorer 9, Safari, or Chrome. As Apple CEO Steve Jobs discussed in his Flash-critique, H.264 is much more mobile-friendly:

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix, and many other companies.

Although Flash ahs recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and it must run on software. The difference is striking on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for upto 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the batter is fully drained.

Hachamovitch is more diplomatic and notes “Flash does have some issues, particularly around reliability, security, and performance.” Nevertheless, he adds that too many consumers still rely on Flash so Microsoft will continue to work with Adobe to make it better.

If it doesn’t get better, by that time HTML5 will already be more widely distributed on sites across the Web. Microsoft, Apple, and Google will make sure of that.