

Why LinkedIn dumped HTML5 & went native for its mobile apps - vshlos
http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/17/linkedin-mobile-web-breakup/

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colemorrison
Was anyone else heavily on the HTML5 crew only to be rudely awakened to all
these inconveniences? It seems like there's a constant, persistent migration
away from HTML5 for mobile style devices...and while every dev group says
something like "performance, debug tools, etc." However, I'd say that the
ultimate reason to do so is because of user behavior - opening up safari
mobile or chrome is not a "pleasant" experience when compared with a native
app.

Is anyone else moving away from html5 to native? What I find odd about this is
Paul Graham's whole "web software" is the future - and yet if "Mobile" future
and mobile users favor "native software" ............. then it seems that
native would be the future.

Of course, one can just say "yes, but native is becoming hybrid with web." And
that's definitely true, but it still makes things very dependent upon the
client and not as "platform agnostic" as a full web movement would be.

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clickonchris
It's not about opening up safari or chrome. HTML5 "apps" are simply a browser
window and the guts are implemented in HTML/Javascript/CSS. This is how
LinkedIn's app used to work and it is the basis for Phonegap (which powers
most HTML5 based apps).

The memory management bit Prasad references is a big deal too. Can you imagine
not being able to release a feature that you've invested a lot of money into
because you've got a performance problem or crashing issue that the tooling is
not good enough to let you solve?

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thinkloop
What kind of memory problems is html5 prone to that native apps aren't? Prasad
didn't give any hints. It seems like a face-saving back-peddle. Native apps
are just butterier, and he wasted a lot of money finding that out.

