Robert Scoble posted on Google Plus today that Flipboard has hired well-known Web innovator Filipe Fortes, fueling speculation that Flipboard is building an HTML5 app, a Web version that could work on Android devices.

Fortes is known for the Flipboard-style HTML5 app he built. He is one of the people behind Treesaver, a JavaScript framework for creating magazine-style layouts using standards-compliant HTML and CSS. The tagline? “Build Once, Publish Everywhere.”

Hiring Fortes makes sense, considering the market’s huge adoption of HTML5. By building an HTML5 app, Flipboard would seemingly open itself to the Android market. And then there is the Kindle Fire. Sources at Flipboard tell Scoble that they expect Amazon to sell a “crapload” of their Kindle Fire tablets.

That move, Scoble says, will force companies, like Flipboard, to take Android tablets seriously. But, surprisingly, a Flipboard spokesperson said in an email today that the focus is still entirely on the iPad and an iPhone version.

Yes Flip has joined Flipboard and is an awesome addition to the team. As you know Flipboard is heavily influenced by beautiful publishing and we are big believers in HTML5. But right now we are focused on expanding Flipboard for the iPad and developing our iPhone edition. A Web version is not currently in the works.

But the email reply is cryptic. If the Flipboard team are big believers in HTML5, why would they not just build a Web version? They have the talent with Fortes. Further, it would also position Flipboard to compete against Feedly, which is Web-based and has an app available in the Android marketplace.

In a video interview Scoble did last year, you can see what Fortes can do. His HTML5 Web demo shows beautiful representations of photos, easy article reading in a column format and is just stunning on a huge display.

Treesaver has been open-sourced, which shows Fortes true standing as a Web innovator, compelled to share what he does with the community. This is where the guy shines. So, not to use him for the skill sets and talent he possesses just seems illogical. In his Goolge Plus post, Scoble speculates that Flipboard will do an HTML5 app, but not until next year, after the iPhone version is done. To split hairs, it could be that Flipboard is not planning a version that can be accessed from a Web browser, but will build a version of the app using HTML5 to make cross-platform development easier.

Services Angle

Fortes hire is a development that any services provider would be smart to take a good look at. It’s almost less important that Flipboard “believes in HTML5.” It’s inevitable that Flipboard develops an app for the Web and the Android platform. More important is the lesson that HTML5 is a defining programming tool for the mobile Web – critical for any organization building apps for its customers and a new generation of users.