No winner in this quest. The only purpose is to help you picking up the solution that fits the best your needs.
Native web applications
pros:
- binary stored locally,
- interfaces directly with the mobile operating system,
- best performance. It takes full advantage of system resources,
- access to hardware capabilities,
- address book, SMS, camera & audio inputs and all the built-in sensors. They allow to create immersive experiences for a better user experience,
- run processes in the background,
- easily monetize through mobile applications stores.
cons:
- need to create one version for every platform. Each mobile OS comes with its own unique tools and the SDK is platform-specific,
- the cost of creating and maintaining all the versions can quickly become prohibitive,
- hybrid approach that combines native development with web technology proposes to bridge web applications and mobile devices. They can be deployed on multiple plateform. Phonegap is one of them,
- updates are not a one step process and you usually have to go through the process of submission and approval required with some app stores.
Web mobile applications
Modern mobile devices lean on powerful browsers that support many of the new HTML5 capabilities, CSS3.
For Twitter and facebook, they are the most popular mobile experience before native application with 14% against 8% for the first and 19% against 4% the last.
pros:
- build on common web-standards technologies html5 & css3
- no installation is required
- update process is direct and requires a simple patch on the server
- visibility is great. If you have content online, people will find through search and share links to it through email, social networks, or web pages
- native mobile applications are actually increasing web use on mobile devices because each time a web link is shared or referenced in a native application it opens in a web browser window.
cons:
- do not take advantage of all the os resources. UI Effects (transitions, transformations) could suffer from that and not really be smooth.
- content need to be loaded. Loading delay can negatively impact discovery and ongoing usage. html5 Application cache feature can speed up the process.
- Accessible built-in sensors are limited. Location detection, device orientation and touch are the only ones for now. User experience is impacted.
