Anthony Malakian: HTML5's Open Access

In terms of technological innovation, financial institutions are understandably cautious when it comes to spending valuable IT dollars on new projects. Even as trading firms have begun to dip their toes into HTML5 development, they still lag other industries such as gaming, in which the programming language has unlocked new capabilities for browser-based games.

TreSensa develops mobile browser-based games using HTML5, which differs from the more traditional method of developing a native app for, say, an Apple device. Rob Grossberg, CEO of TreSensa, says the cost of development and then getting people to actually see and use a game has skyrocketed, creating a state of haves and have-nots when it comes to native apps.

“Game discovery is very costly,” he says. “It costs $3 to get a single user to your game. Apple features about 250 apps per category, but really it’s only the top 25 that anyone really looks at. So unless you’re in that top 25, no one is going to know your app exists.”

Because HTML5 is device-agnostic, it enables developers to build games that have functionality across all devices, allowing consumers to share those games through sending links, rather than downloading apps.

“The cost of development of an HTML5 game is a fraction of what it would be to develop for the native platform,” Grossberg says. “The HTML5 game can live on Android, Apple, Windows 8, Kindle, Blackberry, or on the desktop—you get so much more bang for your buck. When you go native, you have to make a choice between Apple or Android, because both are typically double the budget, as you need separate development teams with those particular sets of skills.”

Functionality provided in HTML5 has lowered the bar on mobile app development, but not everyone is sold on its benefits.

Partners in Crime
Capital markets firms have increasingly been adding HTML5-based projects for trading application development and mobile functionality (see page 30). The ability to build an application once and send it across multiple devices decreases the risk of being locked into one product, while also lowering development costs because you don’t have to build multiple versions of the same app.

Even though functionality provided in HTML5 has lowered the bar on mobile app development, not everyone is sold on its benefits—not yet, anyway. There are browser constraints, especially for firms still wed to Internet Explorer 8 or even 9. Some worry that the user experience continues to be stunted, even if they know that they will eventually have to switch to HTML5 and away from Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash or wide-scale native development.

Mark Chaikin, founder of Chaikin Analytics, which provides real-time, app-based analytics to capital markets firms, has partnered with organizations like OpenFin, Eze Software’s RealTick, and Redi Global Technologies to provide HTML5-based functionality.

He says that the language still isn’t sufficiently enticing to force him to build out his own development team, although the previously mentioned firms have already found ways around some of HTML5’s limitations, so why try to reinvent the wheel?

“HTML5 gives us the ability to work with partners,” he says. For example, Redi is currently in the prototype phase for a solution that will allow users to type a symbol into Redi, which will automatically update a chart within Chaikin Analytics on the user’s desktop. Additionally, with a couple of lines of code, Chaikin can forward a list from the Redi workstation into Chaikin Analytics and the user can see all of their proprietary analytics on a list of stocks and not on a one-off basis.

“The whole HTML5 infrastructure using the Redi container allows us to do that seamlessly,” he says.

Stirred, Not Shaken
HTML5 is not a panacea that breaks down all walls. It’s therefore unlikely that over the next five years, most programming will be run through HTML5 for trading and mobile apps. At this stage it appears that a hybrid model between native and HTML5 is the direction in which the industry is moving. But why put off until tomorrow what can be addressed today?