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Almost nothing you said here is true. Add to homescreen is a horrid broken mess on iOS, caching is broken/bugging as hell on chrome and safari, webworkers are r

Almost nothing you said here is true. Add to homescreen is a horrid broken mess on iOS, caching is broken/bugging as hell on chrome and safari, webworkers are really horrid battery drains and again don’t work on iOS. Wrapping a native HTML5 mixed with native code results in a buggy, spaghetti code mess of an app. Also literally NONE of the biggest most popular apps are HTML5/native. FB, Twitter, Uber, etc... are all native apps.

fabrice_d 8y ago
Yes, Apple is good at keeping their web stack good enough for "regular" web browsing but not feature full enough to compete with their native toolkits. And of course, doesn't allow alternative implementations of the web stack on their platform...
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  Isn’t there a security argument for limiting native APIs to apps from the App Store?
  - kyriakos 8y ago
    True but for web apps you use the same way to give permissions to use your device sensors you would use for a native app. The only difference is that it doesn't pass through the app store review process and apple gets no cut for it.
    - JumpCrisscross 8y ago
      > for web apps you use the same way to give permissions to use your device sensors you would use for a native app Which would mean any malicious site a user got tricked into visiting can access the native API. (Downloading an app is more deliberate than visiting a site and instinctively clicking to make the pop-up go away.) All I'm saying is there are non-financial reasons why an OS designer might sandbox websites from the native API.
- cft 8y ago
  That will be irrelevant in 7 years (time horizon in the article) since Apples's device share will continue to dwindle relative to Android. It will be the same as the historical OSX/Windows ratio. They already signaled that by focusing on pushing up the price per phone versus the number of phones as their stock price driver.
  - Terretta 8y ago
    Arguing “market share” as a headcount instead of, say, disposable income share or % of mobile spend, is like arguing the 1% is irrelevant because they’re only 1 in 100.
kyriakos 8y ago
So the problem appears to be ios in this case. I personally have 3 web apps on my android phones home screen and they offer a decent experience same as a native app. They are not processor or graphics intensive apps but the same applies for a lot of store apps
- eropple 8y ago
  OTOH, on my Android devices I find "add to homescreen" web apps to feel janky and non-native. I like React Native and apps written in it are just fine by me but the browser and the web doesn't compare in L&F or responsiveness. Maybe someday down the line, but not now.
- steve1977 8y ago
  This could also mean that Android native apps are just worse than iOS native apps.
  - kyriakos 8y ago
    if you put it like this then it could mean a lot of things.

fabrice_d 8y ago

Yes, Apple is good at keeping their web stack good enough for "regular" web browsing but not feature full enough to compete with their native toolkits. And of course, doesn't allow alternative implementations of the web stack on their platform...

JumpCrisscross 8y ago
Isn’t there a security argument for limiting native APIs to apps from the App Store?
- kyriakos 8y ago
  True but for web apps you use the same way to give permissions to use your device sensors you would use for a native app. The only difference is that it doesn't pass through the app store review process and apple gets no cut for it.
  - JumpCrisscross 8y ago
    > for web apps you use the same way to give permissions to use your device sensors you would use for a native app Which would mean any malicious site a user got tricked into visiting can access the native API. (Downloading an app is more deliberate than visiting a site and instinctively clicking to make the pop-up go away.) All I'm saying is there are non-financial reasons why an OS designer might sandbox websites from the native API.
cft 8y ago
That will be irrelevant in 7 years (time horizon in the article) since Apples's device share will continue to dwindle relative to Android. It will be the same as the historical OSX/Windows ratio. They already signaled that by focusing on pushing up the price per phone versus the number of phones as their stock price driver.
- Terretta 8y ago
  Arguing “market share” as a headcount instead of, say, disposable income share or % of mobile spend, is like arguing the 1% is irrelevant because they’re only 1 in 100.

kyriakos 8y ago

So the problem appears to be ios in this case. I personally have 3 web apps on my android phones home screen and they offer a decent experience same as a native app. They are not processor or graphics intensive apps but the same applies for a lot of store apps

eropple 8y ago
OTOH, on my Android devices I find "add to homescreen" web apps to feel janky and non-native. I like React Native and apps written in it are just fine by me but the browser and the web doesn't compare in L&F or responsiveness. Maybe someday down the line, but not now.
steve1977 8y ago
This could also mean that Android native apps are just worse than iOS native apps.
- kyriakos 8y ago
  if you put it like this then it could mean a lot of things.