The HTML that came in 1999 significantly changed the way we use the Internet. HTML5 is the latest installment of HTML and a collaborative effort of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG). This is the fifth revision to the HTML. It is intended to address all your online services without having to seek another plugin. It does everything including running apps, play music, does animations, play movies, build complicated applications that run on your browser and everything in between. It is a cross platform that will not discriminate whether you are on a tablet, PC or a smartphone. You can also develop Web applications using it and it has a working group including Apple, AOL, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Nokia, IBM, and many more.
The open source development follows certain guidelines including reduced need for external plugins, easier error handling, scripting to be replaced by markup, be device independent, development process to be visible to public and be based on HTML, CSS, DOM, and JavaScript. It is expected to run easily on low-powered smartphones and as a result, the sales of HTML5 compatible smartphones expected to hit one billion units in 2013. HTML5 is still a work in progress.