http://fourthspeaker.com/2009/11/01/the-mobile-phone-radio-playing-field-mobile-web-apps/

and modeling a new real estate mobile app for here:
http://homesafari.us/

WrapYourApp.com is a service that gives web apps a way to be sold in App Stores. It takes all the benefits of web apps (especially multi-platform) and adds many of the benefits of native apps (can be sold in App Stores, etc). All we need is the URL of the web app and we can put it in the iPhone App Store, Android Market, Palm Catalog (when it opens to general 3rd party apps) and desktop apps on Mac, Windows and Linux.

Prices start at $149.

Mobile web app authors maintain their own code and hosting – while being able to update their application without resubmitting the app to each store.

The problem is that the Web doesn’t know “me”. If the Web server/Web apps can know who the user is, what device they are on, and the user’s location, then delivering appropriate content to the user is simplified and increases the chance for a positive mobile user experience. The key is getting all that info without the user having to constantly type it in on the tiny mobile keyboards.

Providing menu-based navigation (but in the browser) would free up the mobile screen for that more relevant content. Addressing this problem across platforms and respecting the W3C’s standards is the final piece to making it all work.

If you are interested in learning more about this approach or want to try a free Web app developers version (that requires no mobile development) you can check us out at http://www.5o9inc.com. We’d love to hear your feedback.

But it will be sad if these little computers in our pockets can’t also be servers, if they end up being nothing more than fancy green screens.

As you say – the lines are blurring between native and web apps on that platform, and in many cases – the preference – both from a user *and* developer perspective may tip towwards webapp. *Especially* if I can get at the camera, the GPS, the Bluetooth and more from inside the browser, then why would I bother with native, apart maybe from certain game types or very, specialised applications?

I’ve come round from being skeptical regarding the potential “reach” of webapps, to being a convert, and watching the iPhone is partly what took me there. As BONDI and other initiatives get there, I think we’ll see the same happen on the greater swathe of mobile phones, and it’ll be a “Good Thing”.

Great post.

Cheers, Sean

Can 90% of mobile apps really be done on the mobile web? 90% of the things you currently do on the fixed web can be moved down to mobile, and certainly James is right that it’s cheaper to build, modify and iterate mobile web sites than it is to do the same for applications (most of the time).

But applications bring two things, I think: UI possibilities that go beyond the browser metaphor, and integration with the underlying capabilities of the device. Without the latter, the mobile web is stuck being a more limited fixed-web experience, differentiating itself by giving quick access to the most useful online content.

I find it possible to believe that such a mobile web delivers massive value, even whilst holding the view that if you cut out location, camera, mobile sensors, NFC, identity, etc., you’re cutting out many of the things that make mobile unique.

To use an analogy: delivering PDFs of an existing brochure over the web is a cheaper means of taking your brochure online than building a full e-commerce site with user reviews, ratings, etc. – but I wouldn’t say that this means it’s the right way to go.

The point I’m making here weakens when (and, let’s face it, if) the BONDI effort and projects like PhoneGap see the light of day, of course. But even looking at some of the best networked desktop apps I use (/me shuffles slightly, looks at the floor, mumbles “iTunes store”)… there’s a mix of web and application in there which seems to offer more than yer straight web site does, and has me wondering whether mobile web alone is going to be enough.

I still feel that it’s premature for us to state that we know what the mass market of mobile apps/sites/whatever will *be*. In the same way that the web didn’t (for me) really find its feet as a unique medium until blogging and all that social gubbins arrived, I think we’re yet to understand what mobile will really be about.