I think it's interesting that Apple's original idea for iPhone apps was exactly this. Only when jailbreakers made custom apps possible, Apple decided to introdu

I think it's interesting that Apple's original idea for iPhone apps was exactly this. Only when jailbreakers made custom apps possible, Apple decided to introduce the app store and turn it into a great success for them, developers and users. Imagine that web apps had taken off. We'd have such a different ecosystem of apps. Possibly nothing OS specific, except when using device specific features.