Google has unveiled a new version of Gmail that runs on both the Apple iPhone and Android smartphones.
Google vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra hinted that the new HTML 5 Gmail would be released imminently. He said: "For the first time on phones, the internet - the web - is emerging a real platform for apps. My development team was able to have one code-base using the rich new features of HTML 5 ... and it runs on both the iPhone and Android. Imagine being able to run apps that run across all phones - because of the web."
HTML 5 is the next-generation web lingua franca that is still awaiting approval from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The new Gmail incarnation uses HTML 5 and Google Gears to offer users an “app caching” service, i.e. letting users access recently received messages even when they’re offline.
Google’s blog states: “Despite the advent of 3G networks and wifi, smartphones still lack a high-speed, always-on broadband connection and can have connections far less reliable than their desktop brethren. So ... we've gone back to the drawing board and redesigned Gmail for the mobile browser to overcome some of these limitations. We made performance more consistent, regardless of connection type, and laid the foundation for future improvements.”
