Infoworld has a good overview of HTML5 from earlier this year. See here [ and for real insight compare it to an InfoWorld Html5 Deep Dive report from a year earlier]. Combined with HTML5test this is a great combo for finding out a)what is important in HTML5, b)who is implementing what among the many sections of the HTML5 standard and c)whats missing, in conflict, or just not getting worked on[some key features].
Ye Editor’s top HTML5 concerns:
1)Canvas and SVG are barely getting used by major vendors – due to varying implementations by browsers?
2)Webkit vs Firefox Gecko vs Opera Vega vs IE Trident – means trouble in CSS3, touch, gestures, etc
3)Web database is a brawl right now as SQLite is abandoned for various IndexedDB alternates.
4)IE 9 and 10 are still so far behind all other browsers in HTML5 adoption.
5)HTML5 offline is still emerging.
The net result is that HTML5 is still not close to being the cross platform development tool that Steve Jobs promised. In fact Flash in the form of AIR is one of the only viable cross platform tools available for both desktop and mobile given its continued viability on Apple’s iOS x up to 5. And the problems with HTML5 is based not just on missing/incompatible features, but cross platform consistency, reliability, and performance. Web developers will have to, like in the opening scene of Shakepseare in Love, keep the browser vendors feet to the fire.