

This is so wrong at so many places. Web App vs Native App (Infographic) - paliopolis
http://www.alterian.com/wcm/images/278692/mindthegAppinfo

======
MetaMan
Am I the only one getting fed up with these stupid "religious" wars in much of
the IT world?

There are many valid cases where native is the better approach and others
where web-app is best ! Any decent developer will do their homework and select
appropriately.

BTW - many of the 'problems' high-lighted on the graph apply to both Native
and Web-apps and there are some additional ones with Web-apps but I can't be
bothered to spell them out. Bah !!

~~~
jamesaguilar
> Am I the only one . . .

If you have to ask this question, the answer is probably no.

------
swhopkins
This avoids the one major reason that I think most developers choose to
develop native apps - how much easier it is to charge for it.

~~~
blueskittle
It also sidesteps many of the shortcomings associated with going the HTML5
route. In short, it's not an fair, objective comparison of the two.

------
dfxm12
Even this highly simplified view changes once you have the app installed. With
a native app, you have an icon right there on the user's home screen. The web
app would require more typing and clicking.

~~~
gte910h
On iOS you can hit the plus button on any web page to add it to the home
screen, making an icon right there on the user's home screen.

~~~
city41
This is true in Chrome, Windows and ChromeOS as well. Android probably does
too, although I don't know for a fact. The notion that a web app is "just a
web page" is really starting to fade away.

------
drdaeman
A lie by omission. They forgot to warn (following their warnings upside down):

1\. Website can be malicious, too. Phishing, clickjacking, XSRFs, browser
exploits - there's a lot of nonpleasant stuff on the web.

2\. Websites can't manage memory and other resources at all. Sure, you, for
example, can try to measure performance and disable UI effects, but that's
another story.

3\. In a same way, users must have enough of free space where browser's
application cache is kept, too. Or you'll strain network re-downloading same
data over and over again. This is especially annoying for roaming and other
areas with high $/MiB cost or countryside with slow GPRS connectivity.

4\. Website can fail, too. And if this is not some user-local network
problems, this is more disasterous than a crash of a single copy of app on
someone's device - your "webapp" works for noone at that time.

5\. And, obviously, in a same way as removing the app, users could delete the
bookmark for your service.

------
JakeSc
Almost all of those negative points apply to the right column as well.

~~~
cgranade
Should add a few, too, like "hope wireless connection works well or that
developer properly prepared manifest," or "hope the developer didn't just
assume 'web app' meant 'test in Safari Mobile only,'" etc.

~~~
paliopolis
And not just that but not all the native apps have-to-have-an-active-internet
connection vs. a web based app.

~~~
cgranade
Not all web apps do, either, thanks to HTML5 Manifests and the like. That
said, not everything plays along well with offline web apps, sadly.

------
DanHulton
And of course, this whole thing ignores an entirely different entry point
"Discover new app". It assumes you are specifically searching for the app in
question. What the app store and it's ilk offer is exposure. Angry Birds has
been near the top of the top 25 on the app store since launch, and that alone
drives continuous sales.

If you're an incredibly well-selling web app, you STILL have to market and
spend and shout to get yourself known. No matter how well you're doing, your
word of mouth still probably doesn't beat Apple's Top 25 board.

~~~
saurik
The App Store offers exposure to a few hundred applications that are at the
top of their category due to intentionally difficult to predict algorithms;
relying on this mechanism for users discovering your app is asking for failure
and makes about as much sense as making a web page and hoping that it appears
on the front page of a website catalog/portal like Yahoo for the lifetime of
the product. For 99.99% of the applications in the store, people are going to
be finding out about it from online reviews, word of mouth, and search
engines.

------
kapilkale
HTML5 support for things like geolocation / camera usage is inconsistent
across models and generally brittle. The upside is that mobile web is really
low friction and allows for instant deployment, but there's functionality and
no good management system like the home screen.

I've used the Quora web app occasionally. But if I had actually had a Quora
app on my home screen, I'd use it far more frequently.

~~~
saurik
Web applications can be icons on your home screen (at least on the iPhone):
just click (+) and "add to home screen". If the application is setup
correctly, when spawned in this manner it will also appear without any browser
chrome, allowing it to be a truly full screen application.

------
pacomerh
This is just an excuse to drop a semi-cool design on the web using a hot
topic, very typical these days.

------
fleitz
Oh man, they should really tell Instagram / Angry Birds that their software
will work as a webpage and that the user experience on a mobile browser will
be that much better.

~~~
unwind
Uh, Angry Birds quite obviously works as a web page
(<http://chrome.angrybirds.com/?version=hd>), haven't tried it on either
mobile or computer browsers though. Just wanted to point out that even high-
profile games such as that are indeed becoming available as web pages.

~~~
revorad
Angry birds in the browser is 100x worse than on the iPad. It feels like a
totally different game. For a game like that, web apps can't really compete
with native apps right now.

~~~
angryasian
the distinction should be made of mobile web apps vs web apps.. cause there
are tons of flash games that outshine Angry Birds in many ways. Just pointing
out for clarification.

------
tlrobinson
The only valid negative point I see here is "update app", which is really the
web-as-deployment-platform's killer feature from a user's perspective. I do
hate having to update 20+ apps on a regular basis, it should just be on-
demand.

~~~
eridius
The problem with invisible updates is sometimes you don't want to get the
update at all. This is especially true if you work in a corporate environment
and you need to re-certify each version of the app for use on your work-
provided devices.

~~~
tlrobinson
HTML5's Application Cache can solve that to some extent. I believe you can
prompt to user to ask if they want to update (though once it's updated there's
no going back, or installing previous version initially, unless the site
provides mirrors of old version)

~~~
saurik
This question is only going to be relevant if the application is already open:
if you close your browser windows and then re-open the application it will use
the latest cache and evict the older ones. In essence, this mechanism is
designed to allow an application to operate with an atomic version of the
resources it requires for operation, and is not designed to allow the user to
manage old versions.

------
garyrichardson
Never had any of the problems on the left with my iPhone. Seems like FUD to
me.

------
klagan
WTF is this shit....was this a joke?

~~~
qq66
No, just PR material from a company with a horse in the race, targeted at
people who are too poorly informed to see through it.

------
gst
If it's so wrong, then why do you post it?

------
schwa
Apps may contain viruses? FUD pure FUD

------
ramchip
This is useless flamebait.

------
EtienneJohnred
If you try to view the post in a mobile browser, you get:

"Article not found"

Or at least, I am, on my iPhone right now.

There's definitely a touch of irony there.

~~~
paliopolis
This is the blog that linked to it and that's how I got to it:
[http://blog.utest.com/mobile-app-or-web-for-mobile-
infograph...](http://blog.utest.com/mobile-app-or-web-for-mobile-
infographic/2011/07/)

