Computers and consumption have completely changed. The web is unrecognisable from just over a decade ago, and technology is now completely consumer driven.

Computers bought before 1980 were originally designed for strategic military missiles. Pre 2000, computers were designed merely for spreadsheets. Since 2000, computers if we can even call them that, are now built for humans, designed for consumerism. Technology is now so cheap to buy that its main purpose has changed from missile launch to consumer engagment. The face of the ‘computer’ and the web has changed forever, and will continue to do so.

For every index search on Google on a mobile, there are 100 searches on a desktop. We’ve all had horrible experiences on 3G network so we may do up to 10 searches on an ipad because of wifi capabilities and its larger screen size. Both Google and Microsoft have lost half of their original market due to the huge changes to the web. People now use and search in apps, simply because it works better for consumers.

The shift from HTML4 to apps has seen Apple take the lead over web for the every man. Microsoft and Google have invested billions of pounds into mobile and not made a pound of profit thus far. Its too late. Apple’s introduction of apps, a proprietary operating system has given the consumer relatively engaging and easy to use experiences. Apps have been so suitable for companies to exercise their brand on us that everyone has migrated to IOS for content – we don’t like the web anymore.

The next generation favour content, we want the latest and best straight away; making content more valuable. Commodity content existed before Apple, and has since moved to apps. Whats next? HTML5. IOS gives only limited improvements to content from HTML4. HTML5 will give us true engagement.

Engagement has shifted from early web ‘stories’ (15-20 seconds engagement) to apps (2 – 5 minutes) and yet HTML5 can go beyond this and push the engagement numbers much higher. Unbelievably, The New York Times can’t even sell out their inventory of ads on their iPad app – these ads are the most compelling ads anywhere yet they can’t be filled? Many argue that they are waiting, but what for? There are already 65 million iPads and over 100 million iPhones in use, how many more are needed for people to commit?

HTM5 will push engagement much higher. Success will come not from such large numbers of up to 30 million users or views, but many less, carefully targeted users to engage with. Marketers will capture those users exactly, and thus the critical mass will become smaller and the economical value much higher.

Continual improved engagement from HTML4 (nothing) , IOS (better than nothing and improving), HTML 5 (even more so) can be highlighted by a few potential advantages of HTML5:

• HTML4 is blocked by flash, you can’t search separately and it’s intolerable on mobile – on HTML5, every pixel on a page is the same, you can search all over the page. Each pixel can be its own ‘app’.
• Slide or take what you want from a page onto your desktop. Who wants or uses ‘bookmarks’ anyway?
• Layers – pre-embedded pieces of information, which are linked as one, preventing the need to trawl through separate sections of a site or app.

These are just a few examples of the potential for HTML5 which can  all, be monetised. HTML5 gives us unlimited differentiation.

Google owns the HTML4 search market, Apple owns the app market….no one owns HTML5. This is our opportunity to take the web to the next stage. There is no need to completely exclude apps, they have their place and IOS wins on scale, however HTML5 has huge advantages in that it is supported by an open source. There are 10 times more HTML developers to IOS app developers so it’s going to be cheaper and you wouldn’t need to worry about the app store anymore.

Businesses, developers, marketers, designers…ask yourself this – why are you worrying about desktop now? Ask anyone under the age of 21 years old what ‘computer’ they would want, no matter the budget, will always opt for an iPad or iPhone.

Social and mobile are not just two words anymore – you have to be great at them and do something better than anyone else. HTML5 gives us this opportunity.

Make peace not war. Your computer is no longer for firing strategic missiles; it’s for launching some glorious design into the new web.