As part of the announcement that the IE6 usage in the US dropped below 1%, it seems to be logical that HTML5 marketing sites can finally flourish on the desktop browser and mobile devices. But does this really mean on all devices? Here are some handpicked award winning HTML5 sites from theFWA.com, and the corresponding mobile experiences.

Ultranoir

Very slick site, beautiful design, and in a positive sense, very Flash-like with nice transitions, loading screens and animations – definitely an experienced team at work. The transitions are also very smooth on the iPad, potentially thanks to Nitro, and the site would have almost passed as a great iPad experience. Unfortunately certain pages are rendered very pixelated, making the text unreadable.

HTML5 iPad compatibility score (3 out of 5)

Plink by DinahMoe

Fantastic HTML5 multiplayer music experiment developed with the latest Web Audio API and NODE.js. A creative idea nicely executed, with a very responsive user interface.

Unfortunately not on the iPad, or any other browser than Chrome.

HTML5 iPad compatibility score (0 out of 5)

From The Rough

From The Rough is a well executed HTML5 experience, and hopefully a reference for 2012 sites. Very Flash-like, which again is a compliment in this case.

Some minor animation issues during startup on the iPad, but overall the experience is good and it’s possible to navigate to the videos. But the videos won’t play.

HTML5 iPad compatibility score (2 out of 5)

All Is Not Lost

“Made with some friends from Google”, the site combines video, music and HTML5, in a creative way to send a customized message, and promote the band OK Go. Unfortunately everything is lost on the iPad, the site states it is simply only available on the desktop.

HTML5 iPad compatibility score (0 out of 5)

Beetle

Beetle.com promotes the latest Volkswagen Beetle with a lot of details, including the history of the iconic car. Although the animations are sometimes a big sluggish on at least PC Chrome, it is overall a very clean and well designed experience.

And it is the only site that provides an iPad optimized version. Although reduced, it is highly usable and smooth.

HTML5 iPad compatibility score (5 out of 5)

Conclusion

Obviously this is a small sample of sites, but it provides a glimpse at the challenge highly stylized and optimized HTML5 marketing sites face. Is the solution to provide a very simple mobile version, or invest in the efforts to optimize the desktop experience? Or maybe Flash is not such a bad idea after all for the desktop, with an HTML5 mobile optimized site?

An overall challenge higher end marketing sites will continue to face, which will eventually get solved. But until then, you might be running into a marketing/reach issue if your site only runs on one specific desktop browser, and ignores all other browsers and mobile – even if IE6 might not be relevant anymore.

About the author

Jens Loeffler
Technology enthusiast and evangelist, with a passion for online video and mobile. Senior technical evangelist on Adobe's Media Solutions product management team focusing on online video and services. The views expressed on this blog are personal views.

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