Introducing SkyDrive for the modern web, built using HTML5
We're committed to making SkyDrive the best place to get access to your content from anywhere, collaborate on Office docs, and share photos. Mike recently talked about how we're delivering access to your information seamlessly across devices - starting with Windows Phone.
Context & Ripple Effects
HTML5 spent 2010 winning the argument against browser plugins: [[entity/html5|HTML5]] video displaced Flash as the dominant web video format by late 2010, aided by Apple's push against Adobe's runtime on iOS, and by spring 2011 the format had accumulated enough capability that major sites were rebuilding their interfaces on it. Security researchers had also warned that the same enhancements would open new attack surfaces.
With this launch, Microsoft puts its own weight behind that shift: SkyDrive — its consumer cloud storage service — is rebuilt as an HTML5 web app for content access, Office doc collaboration, and photo sharing, positioned as the cross-device layer starting with Windows Phone. The notable subtext is that Microsoft maintained its own plugin runtime, Silverlight, which developers had already been treating as an alternative to replace with the HTML5 <video> tag.
First-order effects
- SkyDrive users get the service's access, Office collaboration, and photo sharing delivered through a standards-based modern web client rather than a plugin-dependent page.
- Windows Phone becomes the first device surface where Microsoft demonstrates the seamless cross-device content access the post describes.
Second-order effects
- Adobe's Flash and Microsoft's own Silverlight both face fresh erosion: when a platform vendor of Microsoft's size rebuilds a flagship web property on HTML5, the case for keeping plugin runtimes installed weakens for mainstream users.
- Rival consumer cloud and document-collaboration services are pushed to match a plugin-free, any-browser experience or cede the 'access your content anywhere' pitch.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, consumer web applications consolidate around open web standards instead of proprietary plugins, making browser capability — not installed runtimes — the competitive battleground, while the vulnerabilities security experts flagged in HTML5 move from theoretical to operationally significant as high-value services adopt it.
- Cloud storage shifts from a sync utility toward a web-delivered work surface where documents, photos, and collaboration live behind a URL, setting up the personal-cloud competition among platform vendors.
The trend: Major consumer web applications are being rebuilt on HTML5, accelerating the displacement of plugin runtimes like Flash and Silverlight across the industry.