On Wednesday, Apple Inc. (AAPL) acquired HTML5 web app company, Particle. AAPL has acquired other companies in the past in order to develop a key part of one of their projects or create an entirely new one. CNET initially reported that Apple acquired the San Francisco based startup and that they acquired the company for its talents in the industry as opposed to any specific project that they were working on.

The company has done HTML5 work for Google, Motorola, Amazon, Yahoo, Sony, and Apple. The group has also created some “labs” projects including Intervue.me, an asynchronous video interviewing project. […]

The deal went through late last month, though not all its less than a dozen employees stayed on to work at Apple. Those who did are listed as “creative technologists” as well as one “user interface engineer,” according to their public LinkedIn profiles.

The report goes on to mention that Apple’s new employees will be put to work specifically on projects such as Apple’s website, iAd, and iCloud.com. Apple may also utilize the company for other projects, such as bringing more of the iTunes software over to the web, similar to iTunes Preview.

It appears Apple has already brought a few employees from Particle onboard already, with TechCrunch noting that several Particle employees have changed their employees on LinkedIn as early as September.

{Via MacRumors}

It was with interest then this week with which I observed an interesting trend. Steve Jobs made a very telling statement during his interview at D8:

Well let first say we have two platforms we support. One is open and uncontrolled — that’s HTML5. We support HTML5. We have the best support for it of anyone in the world. We then support a curated platform which is the app store. It is the most vital app community on any platform. How do we curate this? It’s a bunch of people, and they come into work every day. We have a few rules: has to do what it’s advertised to do, it has to not crash, it can’t use private APIs. And those are the three biggest reasons we reject apps. But we approve 95% of all the apps that are submitted every week.

While some saw this as an obvious dig at those that say Apple’s application submissions system is arbitrary and closed, I see something else buried in that statement. Steve wants to go back to the future of web apps. He would like nothing better to see growth in the viable web apps available for the iPhone OS ecosystem. Apple has even gone so far as to create a showcase of HTML 5 web applications which we wrote about yesterday. Why would Apple want to push developers towards an ecosystem they can’t control? I would propose a twofold answer to that question.

The first answer is somewhat cynical. Apple has every interest in promoting technologies that support its position against Flash. HTML 5 and web applications have the ability to replace everything developers currently do with Flash. A growth in web applications could be the body blow required to finally knock it out. While any web page can now be placed as a shortcut on the Home Screen of an iPhone OS-based device, purpose-built web apps created using Apple-supported technologies would raise that capability to a new level. Fully functional, web-based applications that don’t require Flash will fundamentally change public opinion about the usefulness of the technology. Anyone that has used the Google Voice application written using HTML 5 knows that it appears and functions just as if it was a native application. There isn’t a bit of Flash in it. Now imagine if thousands of such examples existed.

The second answer is about where Apple sees the future opportunity. Google announced at their I/O conference they would be opening a web apps store later this year. This app store would allow developers to submit their web applications to a central store where users would purchase access to them. The only requirement for use would be an HTML 5-compliant browser like Chrome, Safari, or the upcoming IE 9. It isn’t much of a leap to see Apple has an eye on similar revenue streams. There is a whole pool of web developers out there that could be tapped to develop applications for the iPhone. These applications would be cross platform, runnable on any iPhone OS device, and future-proof against upgrades. An uncurated web apps store could be a shining example Apple would hold up against their critics. It would deflect criticism and turn them a tidy little profit. Who could ask for anything more?

Does Apple’s current emphasis on web apps signal a return to some of the original intentions for the iPhone or a cynical redirection of criticism? Would you be willing to use more web apps on your iPhone OS device? Does the origin of an app (native code versus web apps) matter to you? Leave us your thoughts in the comments section.

Poll Question

Cast your vote!

Check out the demo version (HTML5) of iPhone game Hand of Greed ($.99) here.

Apple has updated their website with a new page to promote and educate users about HTML5 and web standards. The showcase features 7 demos which prove that Safari for Mac, Windows and iPhone OS support the capabilities of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript.

These web standards are open, reliable, highly secure, and efficient. They allow web designers and developers to create advanced graphics, typography, animations, and transitions.

It is interesting to note that the webpage says “Standards aren’t add-ons to the web. They are the web. And you can start using them today.” However, in order to experience these “Standards” you will have to “add-on” Safari as your desktop browser. A blog post on Opera community claims that the reason behind the web page not working in the other browsers is:

Apple claim to promote HTML5 and an open Web, but the page uses browser sniffing to block other browsers, vendor prefixes for the CSS3 stuff they are using (even if other browsers support border-radius it won’t work because it’s coded using -webkit-border-radius), and the patent-encumbered H.264 for video.

Apple has been aggressively promoting HTML5 and have no intentions of bringing Adobe Flash to iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

HTML5 Showcase

• Video
• Typography
• Gallery
• Transitions
• Audio
• 360°
• VR