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What originally made the iPhone unique and powerful was that it included a full blown web browser, in the form of the Safari app. Steve Jobs announced the iPhon

What originally made the iPhone unique and powerful was that it included a full blown web browser, in the form of the Safari app. Steve Jobs announced the iPhone as a "Phone," "iPod," and "Internet Communicator." The name "Internet Communicator" indicates how different it is from the other two apps. The Phone and iPod functionality are really a subset of the Internet Communicator. And because the future is open web technologies, not propriety platforms like iOS, Apple should move towards that world by making advanced PWA (Progressive Web Apps) the future of all apps on iOS. It will make installing apps on your phone as safe and easy as bookmarking a web site. It will be much closer to an optimal experience for users and developers. It's the future and Apple should be first.

mkhalil 9y ago
That would be great, but the web is still not as fast as native. So either these PWA's are slightly different than web sites, or Apple works hard to expand OS APIs that are accessible via modern web browsers.
ryanwaggoner 9y ago
That’s definitely not what made the iPhone unique. It was one benefit, but hardly the only one, or even the main one. You hope that open technologies are the future, but it remains to be seen. Regardless, a rapid shift to PWAs is not at all in Apple’s interest, and I highly doubt they’re going to do that. They want all the best apps, developers, and customers to be concentrated on iOS. That’s how things are now (I’m sure many will disagree), and making it easier for users to exit the Apple ecosystem will only hurt them. Apple’s strategy is to invite users into a high-quality, comprehensive ecosystem, and then sell them more devices (and increasingly services) over time. The best way to do that is to provide a differentiated experience that can’t be replicated elsewhere. Given that, why on earth would they shift to focus on PWAs over increasing their hold on the factors that differentiate them?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- staunch 9y ago
  You think Apple needs lock-in to keep customers but it doesn't. That's how Microsoft operates. Apple should move to PWAs because they're better technology than native apps. Users and developers would prefer PWAs if they were well implemented, which is all Apple needs to know.
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    > Apple should move to PWAs because they're better technology than native apps. Given the UI/UX of both models, I will keep using native apps whenever possible.
saagarjha 9y ago
Interestingly, Steve Jobs's vision for apps on iOS was essentially PWAs. He was forced to back down after developer found their way around these restrictions (i.e. jailbroke) and realized they could write much higher quality, faster, and more efficient apps natively.
- andrewmcwatters 9y ago
  Could you elaborate on this?
  - saagarjha 9y ago
    Basically, Steve Jobs didn't want developers spoiling his phone with native apps as they did on Mac OS X. However, it quickly turned out that the native apps could do a whole lot more than the glorified web apps he was proposing, and this quickly led developers to figure out ways to run native code on-device. Apple, seeing the tide turning against it, created the iPhone OS SDK in an attempt to put a modicum of control on the process.
    - netsharc 9y ago
      This is the version of history I believe too, but the SDK documentation was so good that people wonder(ed) if they were planning to release it after all, maybe not for the "sell on Apple Store, we get 30% cut" developer market, but for the big software companies. It's incredible how many people became millionaires because of them, e.g. the makers of Angry Birds. Or makers of apps like Tinder or Uber.
- staunch 9y ago
  That's an imprecise version of the history but what does it have to do with modern iPhones? Many people said GUIs were too inefficient to be worthwhile on early PCs. Then PCs got more powerful and no one says that any longer. The iPhone 8 is orders of magnitude more powerful than early versions. The world has changed and those old arguments no longer make sense.
scarface74 9y ago
The future of mobile being Web has been promised by Apple, Palm, RIM, and Microsoft. Everytime the "future" has been worse than native apps.

mkhalil 9y ago

That would be great, but the web is still not as fast as native. So either these PWA's are slightly different than web sites, or Apple works hard to expand OS APIs that are accessible via modern web browsers.

ryanwaggoner 9y ago

That’s definitely not what made the iPhone unique. It was one benefit, but hardly the only one, or even the main one. You hope that open technologies are the future, but it remains to be seen. Regardless, a rapid shift to PWAs is not at all in Apple’s interest, and I highly doubt they’re going to do that. They want all the best apps, developers, and customers to be concentrated on iOS. That’s how things are now (I’m sure many will disagree), and making it easier for users to exit the Apple ecosystem will only hurt them. Apple’s strategy is to invite users into a high-quality, comprehensive ecosystem, and then sell them more devices (and increasingly services) over time. The best way to do that is to provide a differentiated experience that can’t be replicated elsewhere. Given that, why on earth would they shift to focus on PWAs over increasing their hold on the factors that differentiate them?

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
staunch 9y ago
You think Apple needs lock-in to keep customers but it doesn't. That's how Microsoft operates. Apple should move to PWAs because they're better technology than native apps. Users and developers would prefer PWAs if they were well implemented, which is all Apple needs to know.
- pjmlp 9y ago
  > Apple should move to PWAs because they're better technology than native apps. Given the UI/UX of both models, I will keep using native apps whenever possible.

saagarjha 9y ago

Interestingly, Steve Jobs's vision for apps on iOS was essentially PWAs. He was forced to back down after developer found their way around these restrictions (i.e. jailbroke) and realized they could write much higher quality, faster, and more efficient apps natively.

andrewmcwatters 9y ago
Could you elaborate on this?
- saagarjha 9y ago
  Basically, Steve Jobs didn't want developers spoiling his phone with native apps as they did on Mac OS X. However, it quickly turned out that the native apps could do a whole lot more than the glorified web apps he was proposing, and this quickly led developers to figure out ways to run native code on-device. Apple, seeing the tide turning against it, created the iPhone OS SDK in an attempt to put a modicum of control on the process.
  - netsharc 9y ago
    This is the version of history I believe too, but the SDK documentation was so good that people wonder(ed) if they were planning to release it after all, maybe not for the "sell on Apple Store, we get 30% cut" developer market, but for the big software companies. It's incredible how many people became millionaires because of them, e.g. the makers of Angry Birds. Or makers of apps like Tinder or Uber.
staunch 9y ago
That's an imprecise version of the history but what does it have to do with modern iPhones? Many people said GUIs were too inefficient to be worthwhile on early PCs. Then PCs got more powerful and no one says that any longer. The iPhone 8 is orders of magnitude more powerful than early versions. The world has changed and those old arguments no longer make sense.

scarface74 9y ago

The future of mobile being Web has been promised by Apple, Palm, RIM, and Microsoft. Everytime the "future" has been worse than native apps.