There’s plenty of evidence that HTML5 is gaining steam in the mobile app development space and challenging native app dominance, but new data from analyst firm VisionMobile (News – Alert) offers the most promising picture yet. Based on a survey of over 6,000 developers, it seems that HTML5 is becoming more popular among mobile app makers in emerging markets — which are key to the mobile space as a whole right now.

In particular, it seems mobile developers in South Asia, South America, and the Middle East and Africa are using HTML5 much more lately, to the point that it is now the second most popular platform to develop for after Android. That’s right: HTML5 is beating out Apple’s (News – Alert) iOS, which is the third most popular OS to develop for, in these areas.

Of course, the reason for this has more to do with Apple’s relatively low market penetration in these areas but, no matter the reason, more HTML5 app development is a good to see.

To be clear, VisionMobile categorizes HTML5 app developers as those who use Web technologies —including HTML5, CSS (News – Alert) and JavaScript — to build browser and hybrid apps. Hybrid apps are, of course, programs that use a native software wrapper to gain more control over a device’s hardware.

It’s worth noting that Android’s (News – Alert) share of the mobile development space is pretty similar across all regions, emerging or otherwise. Indeed, the platform hovers around the 70-percent mark in North America, Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Middle East and Africa alike. Overall, Android is favored by 71 percent of programmers worldwide, while iOS comes in second at 55 percent.

By comparison, 37 percent of the world’s mobile developers are making HTML5 apps for the browser, while another 15 percent are making hybrid HTML5 apps. As such, it’s unlikely that HTML5 development will completely overthrow that of native mobile apps any time soon, but it seems HTML5 is well on its way to becoming the third option for developers.