Web Application Native Application Pros Cons Simpler deployment and updates; known technologies, cheaper to maintain; access to GPS information; basic offline support; cross-platform Faster execution; access to address book, accelerometer, audio and camera; App Store; 3D games and animations; push notifications; Bonjour networking support. Slower to execute; more difficult to debug on the client side; limited access to hardware; no official app store; harder to monetize App Store review process; longer update times; relative complexity and higher cost of dev process
Browsers Browser Share Notes Safari 24% iPad not included Opera 21% Mini & Mobile Nokia 16% Android 15% Includes tablets BlackBerry 14% Marginal WebKit http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2011/03/mobile_browser_6.html
http://www.w3.org/2011/02/mobile-web-app-state.html SVG CSS3 WOFF Canvas CSS 3D CSS Animations
Touch events in DOM HTML Speech Web Storage Contacts API Calendar API File Writer API Geolocation API XMLHttpRequest Websockets Messaging API Application Cache HTML5 Web Workers
• Standards for Web Applications on Mobile http://www.w3.org/2011/02/mobile-web-app-state.html • QuirksMode http://www.quirksmode.org/mobile/ • State of the Mobile Web http://www.opera.com/smw/