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What's going to be interesting to me, now, is whether or not this will cause developers (more specifically, service and not game developers) to start to look mo

What's going to be interesting to me, now, is whether or not this will cause developers (more specifically, service and not game developers) to start to look more seriously at web-only apps, as opposed to native. You're thinking, "the performance of web apps doesn't at all compare to native apps," and you're (mostly) right. Web apps tend to feel a bit slower and less responsive. But if we can get one "hero" (i.e., popular web-only app) then people will learn to accept/ignore that the performance isn't quite the same as what they get when they download an app — and that would be good for the whole mobile web ecosystem. And, of course, as mobile browsers (fairly quickly) advance, the performance will increase significantly and the difference will be less noticeable.

mikeklaas 16y ago
The problem isn't the performance of mobile apps. We're about to release an ipad app that could've easily been a webapp—it is 90% implemented via javascript+HTML, animated with CSS transitions, all in a UIWebView controller. We do a lot of app-side caching, but I think a sufficiently-motivated javascript dev could do something similar. The problem is that by not making it a native app, you're cutting yourself off from "the way people get apps" for their devices. The app store is a distribution mechanism that just can't be ignored by a serious mobile developer.
CJefferson 16y ago
My biggest problem with web-only apps is that in many places in the UK, if I am travelling by bus, train or plane, I will only get intermitant access to the web. I refuse to use any system where I can't get access to my data without a speed internet connection.