Mobile has a long way to go to catch up with desktops and laptops in running HTML5 games, according to a report from spaceport.io PerfMarks.

This is the second report from spaceport.io with the first, released in March, concluding that iOS was far quicker with HTML5 games than Android operating systems.

However this addendum is more damning, concluding that the most up-to-date smartphones are six to ten times slower than a modern laptop at running HTML5 games at best, and “thousands” of times slower at worst.

By comparison, the test showed games such as Scrabble and Blackjack were fine to run, but mobile devices struggled badly with anything more advanced.

The PerfMarks test attempts to move as many images around a screen whilst maintaining a 30 frames per second (FPS) rate.

The latest report, entitled ‘HTML5 Performance on Desktop v Smartphones’, states: “The fact of the matter is that even the most modern smartphones in the world, running the latest operating systems and using the most up-to-date browsers, have HTML5 performance that is many times slower than on modern laptops and desktop computers.

“In some cases, it is thousands of times slower, and other times, high performance HTML5 graphics techniques are simply not supported at all,” the report adds.

The report concludes that because of the prevalence of Flash, HTML5 is not needed on desktop and laptop computers, and this contributes to the problem.

“It’s the mobile platforms, where Flash Player is not available, that so desperately need HTML5 and, sadly, it is exactly these platforms where performance is still very lacking,” the report laments, stating with a heavy heart that HTML5 is “just not ready for prime time” yet.

With results like this, it’s easy to see why spaceport.io is so glum about HTML5 mobile development. Does this report not dampen your enthusiasm for developing with HTML5? How long will it be before HTML5 is the standard across all mobile devices?