The Silly Web vs. Native Apps Debate | Monday Note

On a related note, see 4 Reasons Facebook Dumped HTML5 And Went Native (High Scalability)

"HTML5 solves these problems. In theory.
In practice, two even more vexing dilemmas emerge: Performance and The Lowest Common Denominator.
Mobile users react poorly to sluggish performance. Native apps have more direct access to optimized OS modules and hardware features…which means better performance, faster, more immediate interaction. That’s why games, always looking for speed, are almost universally native apps, and it’s why all smartphone vendors promote native apps, their app stores sport hundreds of thousands of titles.
For the Lowest Common Denominator, consider a player piano that can read a scroll of eight parallel punched hole tracks, a maximum of eight simultaneous notes. You want to create richer music, perhaps on an organ that has multiple ranks, pedals, and stops? Sorry, we need your music to play everywhere, so we’ll need to enforce the eight note standard."

The Silly Web vs. Native Apps Debate | Monday Note