Disclaimer: I'm a mobile dev, almost exclusively native apps. I think the motivation of users doesn't align with the idea of web-apps, or at least not their cu

Disclaimer: I'm a mobile dev, almost exclusively native apps. I think the motivation of users doesn't align with the idea of web-apps, or at least not their current incarnation. There are a few variables here: - Frequency of use: you won't install an app for something you use once a week, you will install an app for something you use every day. - Performance of webapps: hint, extremely poor, though largely as a result of bad decisions rather than bad tech. - Pain-in-ass-ness of installing native apps: extremely high, but we know this already. The problem here is that modern websites perform extremely poorly because of a bloated reliance on JS and a completely un-contained explosion of HTTP requests to load something simple. Multiple people have complained about it[1], and the complainers themselves are part of the problem[2]. Even with a warm cache modern webapps still require a ridiculous number of requests before rendering/becoming interactive. The problem is exacerbated in the mobile context where the OS is throttling the number of simultaneous requests, this is why apps that are little slow on desktop become unbearable on mobile. Users, once they have the app installed, largely prefer native because native apps are so much faster in general. This isn't a limitation in the tech - well optimized pages not filled to the brim with extraneous JS imports and bullshit tracking pixels render quite fast, and there's no reason they can't work well on mobile (as an app or regular page), but we seem incapable of doing this. Native apps are still preferred by users (barring the PITA install process) over web-apps not because of some inherent technological advantage, but because native apps generally do not do the bullshit things that make the web nearly unusably slow. [1] http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/20/9002721/the-mobile-web-sucks http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/20/9002721/the-mobile-web-suc... [2] http://blog.lmorchard.com/2015/07/22/the-verge-web-sucks/ http://blog.lmorchard.com/2015/07/22/the-verge-web-sucks/