HTML5 input versus button

Question

I'm just wondering if input is part of the HTML5 spec or is button the better way or is there something else even better to use.

<input type="submit" value="submit"/>

<button type="submit">submit</button>

Answer 1

From the MDC docs:

"<button> elements are much easier to style than <input> elements. You can add inner HTML content (think <em>, <strong> or even <img>), and make use of :after and :before pseudo-element to achieve complex rendering while <input> only accepts a text value attribute."

Answer 2

Their difference lies in how you use them. Whilst their basic function is the same the main difference is that you can put HTML in a <button> element.

<button> also is known to have issues in some versions of IE (IE6)