There is an interesting debate going on about native vs. web based applications in the mobile cloud. There are different opinions of whether smartphones will continue running native, handset-centric, applications in the future, or if these will be replaced by mobile web-based applications a la Google Apps and Facebook. In an article at the Cloudave.com, there is a summary from a panelist session from the Mobilize 2010 conferenece, since earlier this month:
- Native Apps will stay because web apps cannot take complete advantage of the increasingly more powerful mobile phone hardwar
- The counter point to the above claim is that with HTML 5 and modern browsers, web app can easily take control of hardware like GPS, Camera, Accelerometer, etc.
- Enterprise native apps will be with us for just 2+ years as enterprises move more towards web apps for better efficiency and cost savings
- The biggest pain point for web apps is the issue of discovery. Since the web apps lack a marketplace like Apple’s app store or Android marketplace, discovery is a big problem
- Networks are a bottleneck pushing against the web apps. With the increase in the speed and reliability of mobile broadband, this could change
Overall, the results seem to be biased towards web-based apps. As I pointed out in a blog post, HTML5 is a big enabler when it comes to mobile cloud applications
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