We are seeing developers make more bets on HTML 5. It’s in large part due to the features that can be built into apps with the programming language. But it is also about addressing a fragmented mobile OS market.

Box is one of the most sophisticated in this approach. It topped the Forrester Wave report this week for mobile collaboration. Today it announced an array of new mobile offerings with support for Android tablets, the RIM Playbook and an all compatible HTML 5 browser.

It’s the HTML 5 browser capability that I find noteworthy. Box is known for betting big on integrating with third-party services such as Jive Software and Yammer.

It’s without question that developers need to think about iOS and Android first when developing apps. Box is addressing that by tripling the size of its mobile engineering team and recruiting top developers such as David Maynard who previously lead the Google Maps developer team and is one of the founding members of EA.

Services Angle

Developing with HTML 5 gives a service provider reach into a market that is still largely fragmented as illustrated in Gartner’s forecast for the mobile OS market.

HTML 5 gives Box and other developers access to the larger international markets where there will be a wider assortment of mobile OS in play.

For Box in particular it gives the company more ways to compete against Microsoft, which is Box’s biggest target for market share. With HTML 5, Box can develop on Windows and the WebOS, which has historical deep ties with the Windows OS.

I’d bet that there are any number of CEOs like Aaron Levie who would prefer it if HTML 5 emerged as the preferred programming language just to cut down on engineering resources. It’s getting more challenging to compete in the storage market. There are any number of services emerging such as Oxygen Cloud, Carbonite and Dropbox. Plus, you have the larger competitors emerging such as Google, Microsoft and VMware (Mozy).

My bet is that Box has perhaps the best chance of succeeding in this market. It is doing what other smart services do. It’s goal is to be everywhere. HTML 5 helps fill out its presence into any number of markets across multiple operating systems.