Apple iOS crippling HTML5 apps

The Register reports applications written in HTML5 run at significantly slower speeds when launched from the iPhone or iPad home screen in full-screen mode as opposed to in the Apple Safari browser. The site explains there are three issues that cripple the performance and appearance of home-screen web apps; the inability to use the new Nitro JavaScript engine, the lack of access to the operating system's web caching systems and the use of the old synchronous rendering mode.

But at the same time, the company has a vested interest in its App Store, where it takes a 30 per cent cut of all applications sold, and pure web applications are ultimately a threat to the store, particularly when they're loaded to the iOS home screen as if they were local apps. "Some people like to think of it as a conspiracy theory, but it could be a bug," Kessinger says, referring to the speed issue. "If it is conspiracy, it makes a lot of sense for Apple. If you 'disallow' home screen web apps, you prevent people, in a way, from bypassing the App Store."