There is an ongoing debate between mobile web based apps and native apps; which offers great user experience, that is efficient and effective with optimum result for all parties. we are going to present the win-win situation of both approaches.

HTML5 Mobile Web Based Apps: A mobile web app is an HTML5, JavaScript, CSS app running in a mobile browser.

HTML5 Yahoo! App
They bid advertising potential; readily available from a QR code. The depth, spread and scope of HTML5 have more places you can be able to put ads. [more...]

Mobile web browser accessibility extends flexibility; a mobile web app can be opened on any device with a browser, phone, tablet,. Different from what is obtainable on independent platforms. eg, Android, windows 8, IOS, blackberry, etc.

Mobile web user experience provide relative marketing benefits. Marketers can send a text message with a link to a mobile web app that can instantly be launched.

It also supply broader reach, with users of feature phones as well as smartphones able to access mobile web-based apps; that is important for marketers as feature phones still dominate in many markets.

Native APPS:

Native apps requires strong knowledge of Objective C (iOS), Java (Android), and C# (Windows Phone); one that is downloaded and installed on the mobile device.

Gain from the awareness of app stores.

Easily available from the home screen of a device.

Native app has eventual capacity to drive conversion rates and acquisition.

A native mobile app can produce the best user experience — fast and fluid, can give you the best access to device features.

Nevertheless, building a native app on every major platform demands more socialized skills, a longer time to market, and a bigger budget to build and maintain. With JavaScript engines in the browsers getting faster, mobile web app approach has a bright future .By both worlds, it all boils down to your portfolio and scope of project.

http://www.heartlandmobiledigitite.com/2013/04/11/benefits-html5-mobile-web-based-apps-vs-native-apps/

there is no comparison here, native apps will always trump HTML whatever. developers just wish.

lordZOUGA: there is no comparison here, native apps will always trump HTML whatever. developers just wish.

I do not agree. Not especially with the advent of phonegap. Developing is not just for the fun of it, at least not to people who intend to become relevent in the world of apps and eventually in the tech world. I believe both will remain. And developers will choose whichever they deem perfect for whatever purpose they're interested in. HTML5 has obviously come to stay. The support for it has been like wildfire. Even Adobe had to buy phonegap because they saw something. We native language dudes tend to look down on peeps that code with html5 and the likes for mobiles. But frankly the world doesn't care. All the world wants is to open a great app on their device and use it. The language or style by which it was built is immaterial.

laxx:

I do not agree. Not especially with the advent of phonegap. Developing is not just for the fun of it, at least not to people who intend to become relevent in the world of apps and eventually in the tech world. I believe both will remain. And developers will choose whichever they deem perfect for whatever purpose they're interested in. HTML5 has obviously come to stay. The support for it has been like wildfire. Even Adobe had to buy phonegap because they saw something. We native language dudes tend to look down on peeps that code with html5 and the likes for mobiles. But frankly the world doesn't care. All the world wants is to open a great app on their device and use it. The language or style by which it was built is immaterial.

okay, please, list popular html5 apps, not web apps but apps that run natively on a device.

Nothing beats a Native app, they are alot of things you dont have access to in a semi native app or a mobile web app.

laxx:
But frankly the world doesn't care. All the world wants is to open a great app on their device and use it. The language or style by which it was built is immaterial.

Well said...

laxx:

I do not agree. Not especially with the advent of phonegap. Developing is not just for the fun of it, at least not to people who intend to become relevent in the world of apps and eventually in the tech world. I believe both will remain. And developers will choose whichever they deem perfect for whatever purpose they're interested in. HTML5 has obviously come to stay. The support for it has been like wildfire. Even Adobe had to buy phonegap because they saw something. We native language dudes tend to look down on peeps that code with html5 and the likes for mobiles. But frankly the world doesn't care. All the world wants is to open a great app on their device and use it. The language or style by which it was built is immaterial.

Impressive post...well said.
Watch out for Alpha Five Version 12 development tools!!!

abbyode:
Impressive post...well said.
Watch out for Alpha Five Version 12 development tools!!!

shed more light brother...

lordZOUGA:
okay, please, list popular html5 apps, not web apps but apps that run natively on a device.

Check out 'healthtap' . Also the BBC app for the last olympics was written with phonegap (HTML5, Javascript and CSS3). Brace yourself brother. HTML5 has come to say like I said. There is no need for debating though. The issue is, as a developer, you have to ask yourself what you want to do, and how best to go about it. If HTML5 will make your job easier and faster, why stress yourself? Just to prove that you are a top coder? No time boss!!

laxx:

shed more light brother...

Take a look at this demo app here:

http://screencast.com/t/GbUiqlJIKP

The app was developed using Alpha5 without writing a single line of code and it would run on any device (Tablets, Phones, ipads, PCs etc).

Coding is optional these days...

Today's technologies focus more on functionality rather than the euphoria of successfully writing 10 pages of code which can now be achieved by a single click of a button. Why do you have to re-invent the wheels?
Come to think of it, you should have foreseen long before now that the idea of creating native apps is not sustainable. The reason is because you would have to write and rewrite same app a number of times just beacuse you want to port into iphone, blackberry, Android, Windows Phone etc. Do you know how many Mobile OS that wud still be invented soon? Meaning you would keep re-writing same app and learning new technologies every day so as to port your app. Come on, this is truly not sustainable. You should be able to build once, and run your application on any OS or device so far the device is internet enabled. This is the essence of html5 technologies.
People saw this coming and more reason why they came about PhoneGap.

However, the solution is pretty simple if and only if you must still publish into android, IOS, WIndows or BB market.
Just develop your app in html5 enabled development tools and create a small native app that wud only launch the link to your app. You would save yourself a lot of headaches by so doing.

abbyode: Today's technologies focus more on functionality rather than the euphoria of successfully writing 10 pages of code which can now be achieved by a single click of a button. Why do you have to re-invent the wheels?
Come to think of it, you should have foreseen long before now that the idea of creating native apps is not sustainable. The reason is because you would have to write and rewrite same app a number of times just beacuse you want to port into iphone, blackberry, Android, Windows Phone etc. Do you know how many Mobile OS that wud still be invented soon? Meaning you would keep re-writing same app and learning new technologies every day so as to port your app. Come on, this is truly not sustainable. You should be able to build once, and run your application on any OS or device so far the device is internet enabled. This is the essence of html5 technologies.
People saw this coming and more reason why they came about PhoneGap.

However, the solution is pretty simple if and only if you must still publish into android, IOS, WIndows or BB market.
Just develop your app in html5 enabled development tools and create a small native app that wud only launch the link to your app. You would save yourself a lot of headaches by so doing.

Solid stuff bro. Well said. You have to be an entrepreneur alongside a developer. That's the way forward...

it is still going to be slow and of less quality than native apps. internet is still costly and crappy, so until it gets cheap, we shall duscuss this again.
I bet most people on this thread are web developers.

lordZOUGA: it is still going to be slow and of less quality than native apps. internet is still costly and crappy, so until it gets cheap, we shall duscuss this again.
I bet most people on this thread are web developers.

Oh i see, it seems you are basing your argument based on our internet connectivity issues in Nigeria. The world is not waiting for Nigeria my broda. We can only catch up as much as we can but we are not in any way determining the direction of technological wave.
Shalom...

abbyode:
Oh i see, it seems you are basing your argument based on our internet connectivity issues in Nigeria. The world is not waiting for Nigeria my broda. We can only catch up as much as we can but we are not in any way determining the direction of technological wave.
Shalom...

interesting, are you in Nigeria?

laxx:


Check out 'healthtap' . Also the BBC app for the last olympics was written with phonegap (HTML5, Javascript and CSS3). Brace yourself brother. HTML5 has come to say like I said. There is no need for debating though. The issue is, as a developer, you have to ask yourself what you want to do, and how best to go about it. If HTML5 will make your job easier and faster, why stress yourself? Just to prove that you are a top coder? No time boss!!

HOW COME I NEVER HEARD OF THOSE APPS ?

abbyode:
Take a look at this demo app here:

http://screencast.com/t/GbUiqlJIKP

The app was developed using Alpha5 without writing a single line of code and it would run on any device (Tablets, Phones, ipads, PCs etc).

Coding is optional these days...

SORRY, I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. BUT COME TO THINK OF IT WHAT WAS USED TO MAKE THE APP OR RUN THE APP IS MADE OF CODE ?. OR WERE THEY MADE WITHOUT CODE ?.

one has to keep the immediate environment in mind too

abbyode: Today's technologies focus more on functionality rather than the euphoria of successfully writing 10 pages of code which can now be achieved by a single click of a button. Why do you have to re-invent the wheels?
Come to think of it, you should have foreseen long before now that the idea of creating native apps is not sustainable. The reason is because you would have to write and rewrite same app a number of times just beacuse you want to port into iphone, blackberry, Android, Windows Phone etc. Do you know how many Mobile OS that wud still be invented soon? Meaning you would keep re-writing same app and learning new technologies every day so as to port your app. Come on, this is truly not sustainable. You should be able to build once, and run your application on any OS or device so far the device is internet enabled. This is the essence of html5 technologies.
People saw this coming and more reason why they came about PhoneGap.

However, the solution is pretty simple if and only if you must still publish into android, IOS, WIndows or BB market.
Just develop your app in html5 enabled development tools and create a small native app that wud only launch the link to your app. You would save yourself a lot of headaches by so doing.

hey read this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4466791 and this http://moodymoddy.livejournal.com/27419.html . My favourite comment there is "The UX is the absolute
most important thing.
Anything that sacrifices
the user experience just
to make it easier to
develop is a bad tool. It's
a tool for the lazy". Seriously why learn all languages to build your app for all platform when you can build for one, make money or get from investors and hire developers to build something that will sell and not just to have app. Let them keep the os rolling we need them. Don't take this personally but its my view of this.

lordZOUGA: it is still going to be slow and of less quality than native apps. internet is still costly and crappy, so until it gets cheap, we shall duscuss this again.
I bet most people on this thread are web developers.

I bet $100,000 that they are. They love sharp sharp things.

Am sorry, if i said anything wrong, you can correct me we learn every day, if we refuse to we will go extinct like the dinos. HTML 5 AND NATIVE APPS HAVE COME TO STAY. But u can't just compare native apps with html 5, except a change take place.

elvis10ten: Am sorry, if i said anything wrong, you can correct me we learn every day, if we refuse to we will go extinct like the dinos. HTML 5 AND NATIVE APPS HAVE COME TO STAY. But u can't just compare native apps with html 5, except a change take place.

exactly my point, it cannot be compared

okay cool, itz well.

@ elvis10ten, I got your mail but I could not reply. seems something is wrong with the nairaland mail server. can you post your email address here so I can reply you directly?

Ok.

you can remove it now

“I think the biggest mistake we made as a
company is betting too much on HTML5 as
opposed to native,” he admitted,
acknowledging his company’s difficulties in
piecing together a coherent mobile strategy.

Thats Zuckerberg thought on HTML5 and Facebook had to change to native platform. for some applications believe me HTML5 wont even work. How do you program Near Field Communication app for android using HTML5, which HTML 5 cross-platform framework supports that? Use HTML5 if it's enough for you but dont come here and confuse people like HTML5 is the silver bullet for killing platform dependent mobile development vampire.

megaplaza: “I think the biggest mistake we made as a
company is betting too much on HTML5 as
opposed to native,” he admitted,
acknowledging his company’s difficulties in
piecing together a coherent mobile strategy.

Thats Zuckerberg thought on HTML5 and Facebook had to change to native platform. for some applications believe me HTML5 wont even work. How do you program Near Field Communication app for android using HTML5, which HTML 5 cross-platform framework supports that? Use HTML5 if it's enough for you but dont come here and confuse people like HTML5 is the silver bullet for killing platform dependent mobile development vampire.

and LinkedIn has followed suit. they've dumped HTML5 for native

megaplaza: “I think the biggest mistake we made as a
company is betting too much on HTML5 as
opposed to native,” he admitted,
acknowledging his company’s difficulties in
piecing together a coherent mobile strategy.

Thats Zuckerberg thought on HTML5 and Facebook had to change to native platform. for some applications believe me HTML5 wont even work. How do you program Near Field Communication app for android using HTML5, which HTML 5 cross-platform framework supports that? Use HTML5 if it's enough for you but dont come here and confuse people like HTML5 is the silver bullet for killing platform dependent mobile development vampire.

Eeer bro, I don't remember anyone saying HTML5 is an ultimate solution to the cross platform problem. Re-read my posts. I said its left to the developer to choose whichever platform would suit his need best under the shortest period of time. Several solid apps CAN be built with HTML5. Native is superior no doubt, but its only so in frameworks inaccessible by HTML5 for now. It's only a matter of time before HTML5 gets access level to frameworks that are beyond its reach now. Remember that HTML5 is not even fully fledged yet, and its already creating this much attention. Time brother, Time...

Great contributions. Much to learn from them. More grease to your fingers..... In web developers we trust

There's a lot of them, sometimes you can't tell. Access bank mobile app on BlackBerry10 is an HTML5 app

lordZOUGA:

okay, please, list popular html5 apps, not web apps but apps that run natively on a device.

Plugins can be created for that purpose, and it would still be HTML5. HTML5 apps can even run in the background and auto run on startup. Its very flexible. Although I personally prefer native

megaplaza:
“I think the biggest mistake we made as a
company is betting too much on HTML5 as
opposed to native,” he admitted,
acknowledging his company’s difficulties in
piecing together a coherent mobile strategy.

Thats Zuckerberg thought on HTML5 and Facebook had to change to native platform. for some applications believe me HTML5 wont even work. How do you program Near Field Communication app for android using HTML5, which HTML 5 cross-platform framework supports that? Use HTML5 if it's enough for you but dont come here and confuse people like HTML5 is the silver bullet for killing platform dependent mobile development vampire.