Roku is adding new app channel features for developers, underscoring why native apps still have a role to play opposite HTML5 applications, and why the television app market is still so fractured.
According to Cord Cutters News, Roku has released several updates to its platform for developers ahead of the launch of new Roku hardware -- and possibly an upgraded Roku OS -- this fall. New feature options include the ability to add a larger row of highlighted content in the grid guide, to create menu overlays on live-stream content and to offer multiple live streams within a single channel.
The updates come as Roku Inc. argues with the industry at large about the value of native apps and their importance to the TV ecosystem. With the FCC now proposing that pay-TV providers make their services available via apps on third-party devices, many have reasoned that new TV apps should default to the open HTML5 standard. But Roku asserts that HTML5 is "bulky and expensive," and suggests that native apps can offer more innovative features and better performance. (See Roku: HTML5 No Panacea for TV Apps.)
The problem with native apps is that they require platform-specific development. Unlike with web apps, there's no write once, read everywhere solution.
It's a minor issue in the mobile industry because there are only two commercially viable app platforms: Android and iOS. But the same can't be said in television. For TV, there's the Roku platform, Amazon Fire TV, Apple tvOS, Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and more. Content and service providers can choose to develop individual apps for each platform, but that requires significantly more resources than the option to create one web app and distribute it everywhere.
Yes its a major issue when we are talking about TV providers adapting to the app age.
http://www.lightreading.com/video/video-services/roku-revamps-why-it-matters/d/d-id/726214?