LIVE FROM CTIA WIRELESS 2012: Gary Kovacs, CEO of Mozilla, today attacked previous tech developments in the mobile browsing space and heralded HTML 5 as “a common language” that will usher in “a new world of innovation.”

Speaking in this morning’s keynote session, Kovacs stated:  “50 percent of people are on the mobile web, but I see a lot of walls going up… Less than 10 percent of the top one million websites are mobile enabled. The single best mobile usability browsing innovation so far is shrinkage. We’ve taken a technology and condensed it down to fit into our pocket. It’s not going to work. We cannot let our legacy just be ‘shrinkage’ – we have to do better.”

He continued: “I know we can do better because we have a common language now – HTML5. HTML5 is optimised for what the web has become today – apps, videos, immersive experiences.”

Kovacs attempted to back up his argument by demonstrating market progress in the last twelve months. “Work is underway and the momentum has started,” he said, referencing HTML5-based mobile services from Facebook, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Economist. “Two years ago less than 10 percent of video was playable in HTML5 – today’s it’s 69 percent. And there are three million HTML developers today. It is the language tech developers are speaking – the majority of people prefer to develop for web runtime than proprietary platforms, the open web gives developers the biggest canvas to play on.”

Kovacs didn’t reference his own company’s recent success in this area – having announced in February a deal with Telefonica Digital to use its own platform Boot 2 Gecko to help create low-cost smartphone devices – but he concluded with his belief the industry is
approaching a “momentous platform shift” that will run on an open platform. He stated: “We are individuals. We want choice. I can’t believe that one or two companies will be able to curate the curiosity of 5 billion people around the world. The face of the internet is also changing. Imagine a world where we all spoke a common language. The web can be a collective leap forward. Once get this done we will usher in a new world of innovation.”