Mobile web doesn't come anywhere close to replicating the fluidity and functionality of a native app and it never will. Running a dedicated application designed for the system will always beat an application designed for the system on top of the system (web browser). I prefer native applications every time.

Yeah, but maybe I just want to, you know, read an article and not replicate the fluidity and functionality of a native app. Reading articles worked just fine with NCSA Mosaic, I promise it works fine mith Mobile Safari too.

OP's argument was that mobile apps are only popular because the mobile web is not good enough. Obviously when the mobile web is used for it's original intent -- pages of information, mostly text, some images -- and not full web applications with heavy JavaScript dependencies and animation and share buttons and shit, it's a pleasure to use.

"Yeah, but maybe I just want to, you know, read an article and not replicate the fluidity and functionality of a native app."

Exactly. There are, what, a billion or so websites nowadays?

Obviously installing an app for even a tiny fraction of a percent of those is not going to happen. Sooner or later, site owners are going to have to accept this basic fact.

What about the case where you plan on using the app one time for a grand total of 30 seconds? Is the trouble of visiting the App Store, authenticating, installing, launching, allowing permissions and onboarding really worthwhile? Or is that a case for the web's dynamic runtime?

The big catch is assuming that the team is big enough to put all the features into a variety of native apps.

It is possible that for a small team given the choice of one great web app or splitting time between Windows/OSx/iPhone/Android that the web app is superior.

Blekko shipped an app -- izik -- which was extremely fluid even though it was actually a webpage. You and I probably have no idea which of the apparently native apps we use every day are actually webpages.

No, it's painfully obvious when applications are using a full-panel WebView with UI elements and transitions that aren't system-defined. It's also pretty obvious when you have no network and the app suddenly doesn't load.

It may be painfully obvious to an expert, but most people don't actually care.

It's also because people don't take you seriously without one.

I recently made a webapp that works 100% as well as a native app (just as fluid & just as many features), but people wondered where the 'real app' was for Android and iOS.