I think I disagree with the premise, which is that 37Signals is making some sort of strategic mistake by not implementing native apps. My perspective is that ba

I think I disagree with the premise, which is that 37Signals is making some sort of strategic mistake by not implementing native apps. My perspective is that back in the '90s, I wrote internal desktop apps for corporations when the web came along, setting back the user experience a decade (at least). Web apps have only recently begun to offer the kind of user experience that desktop apps provide. Because of this, I was surprised when web apps won, and won so quickly and thoroughly. But it turns out that the user's experience - although important, and especially so for consumer apps - is only one of many factors that drive technology adoption, even in the consumer market. Certainly 37Signals might pick up some users with smoother client apps, but at least for the time being, they have to balance that against the cost of developing those apps. My guess is that most users will care about clunky HTML vs. smooth native apps about as much as they cared about clunky HTML vs. smooth native apps back in '98. Which is to say, hardly at all.