The best part of React Native, if it can deliver on its promises, is that it will provide web developers with a toolset they can use that will satisfy customers

The best part of React Native, if it can deliver on its promises, is that it will provide web developers with a toolset they can use that will satisfy customers or product managers who demand perfect native experiences (whether or not it makes business sense to demand it). I think the poor reviews of Facebook's HTML5 mobile app shook the company to the core and they swung a bit far in the other direction, abandoning the possibility that the web will ever be mobile ready. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle; no, you can't get native performance from the web, but you can get close. And every year it gets a little closer because phones are getting ridiculously powerful. All this said, I think Facebook's approach to the platform fragmentation problem is clever and worth checking out, but I'd still bet on HTML5 over the long term.